Contemporary culture includes a high awareness of personal and global health hazards. Many people may feel some anxiety in this regard, but some develop an unbearable sense of dread that prevents them from functioning. Treating Health Anxiety gives prescribing and non-prescribing clinicians, as well as the counselors and social workers who encounter the problem, the tools to reduce both the fears and the medical costs that so often accompany them.
In the recently updated Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the diagnostic concept of hypochondriasis was eliminated and replaced by somatic symptom disorder and illness anxiety disorder. Hypochondriasis and Health Anxiety: A Guide for Clinicians, edited by Vladan Starcevic and Russell Noyes and written by prominent clinicians and researchers in the field, addresses current issues in recognizing, understanding, and treating hypochondriasis. Using a pragmatic approach, it offers a wealth of clinically useful information. The book also provides a critical review of the underlying conceptual and treatment issues, addressing varying perspectives and synthesizing the current research. Specific topics the text covers include: clinical manifestations, diagnostic and conceptual issues, classification, relationships with other disorders, assessment, epidemiology, economic aspects, course, outcome and treatment. Additionally, the book discusses patient-physician relationship in the context of hypochondriasis and health anxiety and presents cognitive, behavioral, interpersonal and psychodynamic models and treatments. The authors also address the neurobiological underpinnings of hypochondriasis and health anxiety and pharmacological treatment approaches. Based on the extensive clinical experience of its authors, there are numerous case illustrations and practical examples of how to assess, understand and manage individuals presenting with disease preoccupations, health anxiety and/or beliefs that they are seriously ill. It approaches its subject from various perspectives and is a work of integration and critical thinking about an area often shrouded in controversy.
The Clinician's Guide to Anxiety Sensitivity Treatment and Assessment provides evidence-based strategies for clinicians looking to treat, assess and better understand anxiety sensitivity in their patients. The book delivers detailed guidance on the theoretical background and empirical support for anxiety sensitivity treatment methods, assessment strategies, and how clinicians can best prepare for sessions with their clients. Bolstered by case studies throughout, it highlights anxiety sensitivity as a transdiagnostic risk factor while also looking at the importance of lower-order sensitivity factors (physical, social, cognitive) in treatment planning, implementation and evaluation.
As a mental health professional, it can be difficult to help anxious clients face their fears and anxieties. Exposure therapy is widely appreciated as one of the most effective therapeutic treatments for anxiety spectrum disorders; however, it is often underutilized due to problems that present themselves during treatment, such as client unwillingness or hesitancy, or a lack of understanding on the professional’s part regarding targeted applications. The Clinician's Guide to Exposure Therapies for Anxiety Spectrum Disorders offers guidance in creating specific exposure exercises for clients’ individual fears and phobias, as well as tools to help you and your clients overcome common roadblocks that arise during exposure therapy. In addition, this clinician’s guide presents detailed solutions and specific exposure strategies for the most common fears and phobias clients experience. You will learn to implement exposure therapy and integrate it with other evidence-based practices, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). The book also includes reproducible worksheets you can use to help clients develop hierarchies of exposure and information about using prolonged exposure therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder. If you are looking for a powerful resource for treating anxiety disorders, this is it.
Grounded in current theory and treatment research, this highly practical book presents a comprehensive framework for assessing and treating health anxiety, including full-blown and milder (subclinical) forms of hypochondriasis. The current state of knowledge about these prevalent and costly problems is reviewed, and assessment methods and empirically supported treatments described. Clear, step-by-step recommendations are provided for engaging patients or clients, implementing carefully planned cognitive and behavioral interventions, and troubleshooting potential pitfalls. Important advances in pharmacotherapy for persons with health anxiety disorders are also discussed. Enhancing the utility of this clinician- and student-friendly resource are numerous case examples and sample dialogues, quick-reference tables and boxed material, and over 20 reproducible handouts and assessment forms.
'This book provides a very useful and thought-provoking account of a developing form of interpersonal psychotherapy and gives a clear guide for practising clinicians."Psychological MedicineFirst published in 2003, this groundbreaking text firmly established itself as a touchstone for all therapists using interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT). Key featu
Designed for clinicians delivering postpartum care, including clinicians, midwives, OB-GYN nurse practitioners, and women's health practitioners, this text overviews the six different mood and anxiety disorders that may present during a woman's postpartum year. Postpartum Mood and Anxiety Disorders focuses on assessment, screening tools, diagnosis, treatment, and implications for practice, and includes case studies to integrate the process.
