Review of Treating Health Anxiety: A Cognitive-Behavioral Approach.

Health anxiety had been somewhat neglected for years as it by nature evades clear diagnostic boundaries, wavering between a somatoform disorder, an anxiety disorder, and in some cases, a delusional disorder. Recently, the topic of health anxiety has received increasing attention, primarily from leaders in the anxiety disorders field, as reflected in the growing literature on the topic. The book "Treating Health Anxiety: A Cognitive-Behavioral Approach" (see record 2005-04429-000), reviewed in this article, is a timely and much needed addition to this area that will appeal to both clinicians and researchers alike. The book's authors have done a fine job producing a comprehensive book on health anxiety that is well written, interesting, and provides broad coverage of the nature, assessment, and treatment of health anxiety. The use of case examples throughout and the relatively short chapters certainly make this an interesting and quick read. This book will be especially useful for clinicians treating the full range of health anxiety, including hypochondriasis, disease phobia, somatic delusion, or any disorder characterized by excessive anxiety about one's health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conference report: Potent podium on pornography.

We wish to describe briefly the proceedings of a large symposium held in Toronto during February 1984 on Media Violence and Pornography. We shall not attempt to describe in any detail what particular speakers had to say, since that would take far too much space. Instead, we shall try to give an impression of the meeting and use this as a platform to discuss the questionable contribution of research findings to conferences which are preoccupied with emotional issues. The symposium was clearly not intended to be a scientific enterprise. It was not intended to inform an intelligent audience of the issues surrounding pornography and violent entertainment. The organizers wished to convince the public that censorship is necessary. The conference drove home to us how important it is for psychologists and other social scientists to ensure that programmes are balanced and well moderated should they decide, as well they might, to "enter the fray" in areas where strong emotional stands are being voiced. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Management of work and personal life: Problems & opportunities.

Reviews the book, Management of work and personal life: Problems & opportunities edited by Mary Dean Lee and Rabindra N. Kanungo (1984). Management of work and personal life is a timely book that breaks new ground in a much neglected but increasingly important area for research and problem solving. This book represents a distillation of selected symposium contributions from several participants from various disciplines. The purpose of this symposium, held at McGill University in April 1983, was "to stimulate, develop, and diffuse new ideas that might help individuals and organizations adapt to a changing society in which the traditional idealized models for coordinating work and personal life are passé." This book will also be of considerable interest to professionals involved in such activities as life-style counselling and career planning. In general, the editors have selected symposium contributions that attempt to summarize what is known in six different areas related to management of work and personal life, and then suggest directions for future research. The six areas are work and family roles, work and leisure, quality of life, occupational stress, career and adult development, and behavioural patterns of structuring daily life. Overall, the reviewer feels that this book is important reading for scholars who wish to study or do research in the general area of improving quality of life through integrated management of different life facets. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Animal models for psychiatry.

Reviews the book, Animal models for psychiatry by J. D. Keehn (1986). The topic of this book is timely, for the use of nonhuman laboratory animals in behavioural research has become a controversial issue. As an expert on ethical issues in psychological research, Keehn is an appropriate person to examine and summarize the role of nonhuman species in the study of abnormal behaviour. In the first section of the book, Keehn attempts to evaluate the ethics of behavioural experimentation with nonhuman subjects and to summarize several principles of humane experimental procedures. In the second part of the book he catalogues various clinical syndromes in nonhumans and describes various experimental paradigms that he believes are appropriate for the study of "psychiatric" disorders. As a defence of animal research and a summary of animal syndromes, the book is successful. As a summary of animal models and a guide for the researcher, both novice and experienced, I found the book disappointing on two scores. First, the book is not held together by any theoretical glue but rather seems more of a catalogue of examples of psychopathology in nonhumans. My second disappointment comes from the author's uneven emphasis on different disorders. Overall, I enjoyed the book and feel it is a useful volume. It provides an extensive summary of examples of psychopathology in nonhumans and illustrates the usefulness of behavioural studies as models of neurotic conditions in particular. Further, it argues forcefully for the importance of behavioural research in the study of mental disorders and could serve as a good place for undergraduates to read about the issues involved in animal research. The book falls short, however, as a "must have" volume for those active researchers or clinicians. Unfortunately, it offers us little insight into the nature of psychopathologic behaviour in either human or nonhuman subjects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Anxiety disorders and phobias: A cognitive perspective.

Reviews the book, Anxiety disorders and phobias: A cognitive perspective by Aaron T. Beck, Gary Emery, and Ruth L. Greenberg (see record 2006-01301-000). Aaron Beck and colleagues have done an excellent job in their attempt to present a comprehensive cognitive model for understanding and treating anxiety disorders and phobias. The authors set out to present a comprehensive cognitive model for the understanding and treating of anxiety disorders and phobias. What they covered is presented with scholarly thoroughness and depth. What seems to be lacking in their presentation is an attempt to address the impact of interpersonal context. Thus, while the cognitive model promises to be an extremely helpful component to the understanding and treatment of anxiety disorders and phobias, a comprehensive treatment regimen will often require attention to additional aspects. The book is well written and richly illustrated with case histories and examples. It provides important perspectives in the understanding and treatment of anxiety disorders and phobias. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anxiety sensitivity and the anxiety disorders: A meta-analytic review and synthesis.

There has been significant interest in the role of anxiety sensitivity (AS) in the anxiety disorders. In this meta-analysis, we empirically evaluate differences in AS between anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and nonclinical controls. A total of 38 published studies (N = 20,146) were included in the analysis. The results yielded a large effect size indicating greater AS among anxiety disorder patients versus nonclinical controls (d = 1.61). However, this effect was maintained only for panic disorder patients compared to mood disorder patients (d = 0.85). Panic disorder was also associated with greater AS compared to other anxiety disorders except for posttraumatic stress disorder (d = 0.04). Otherwise the anxiety disorders generally did not differ from each other in AS. Although these findings suggest that AS is central to the phenomenology of panic disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder, causal inferences regarding the role of AS in these anxiety disorders cannot be made. Moderator analyses showed that a greater proportion of female participants was associated with larger differences in AS between anxiety and nonclinical control groups. However, more female participants were associated with a smaller AS difference between anxiety and mood disorder groups. This finding suggests that AS is less robust in distinguishing anxiety from mood disorders among women. Age also moderated some observed effects such that AS was more strongly associated with anxiety disorders in adults compared to children. Type of AS measure used also moderated some effects. Implications of these findings for the conceptualization of AS in anxiety-related disorders are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Exploration in the Psychology of Stress and Anxiety.

Reviews the book, Exploration in the Psychology of Stress and Anxiety by Byron P. Rourke (ed.). This book is the result of a symposium held to mark the opening of new facilities for the Department of Psychology at the University of Windsor in 1968. The title of this little volume may be viewed by some as being pretentious. The knowledgeable reader in the area of stress and anxiety who expects a systematic attack on current problems may be somewhat disappointed. Not only are the chapters uneven, but they represent a global "hodge-podge" of theoretical, empirical and philosophical essays loosely bound together under a general rubric. Yet, in spite of the inconsistent style and presentation, there is probably something of interest to every general reader. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Weston Ashmore Bousfield (1904–1986).

Wes Bousfield died September 6, 1986, in Connecticut, where he had lived and worked for almost 50 years. Bousfield attended college in New England, earning a BME degree at Northeastern University in 1927, two master's degrees (Boston University, 1928, and Harvard University, 1932), and a PhD in psychology from Harvard in 1933. Bousfield's publication record began in 1930, and he published almost 40 articles alone or with collaborators at Tufts and Connecticut up to 1953. These studies concerned a number of topics: apparatus, fatigue and motor skills, hunger (in rats, rabbits, chickens, and cats), and affective processes (especially euphoria, primarily by means of written responses to instructions such as "name as many pleasant things as you can" and by rating scales). The next 25 years of Bousfield's career were essentially devoted to the study of organization in memory through category clustering in free recall. His numerous publications after 1953 involved this topic. Bousfield served in other ways. He was Treasurer of the Eastern Psychological Association (EPA) from 1948 to 1950, and he was the first archivist of the invisible college known as the Group for the Study of Verbal Behavior (GSVB). At the time of Wes's retirement from teaching in 1971, a symposium in his honor was held at the meeting in New York City of the EPA. The symposium concerned his contributions to the study of organization and memory and included papers by James Deese and James J. Jenkins, co-workers for many years, the late C. Richard Puff, a former student, and Max Allen, a Connecticut colleague. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Children's peer relations: Issues in assessment and intervention.

Reviews the book, Children's peer relations: Issues in assessment and intervention edited by B. H. Schneider, K. H. Rubin, and J. E. Ledingham (1985). In 1984, a conference was held in Ottawa on the topic "Research Strategies in Children's Social Skills Training." It was international in scope and brought together many of the field's leading researchers. The papers presented at that conference form the nucleus for this volume of chapters, which has been carefully edited by three of the conference organizers. Substantial additions to the conference material are apparent, and the purpose of the book has been redirected somewhat to examine currently emerging research on children's social relations with regard to its implications for assessment and treatment of childhood social dysfunction. The resulting volume is one that is highly rewarding to the reader. The editors and authors have achieved the difficult task of integrating many discrete programmes of research around a few common themes. All of the chapters are well written, and together they present a representative selection of current research that is methodologically sound and of scholarly significance. As such, this volume is a timely and thought-provoking collection of chapters that will be of considerable interest to students and researchers in the fields of children's social relations and social skills training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Textbook of psychopharmacology.

Reviews the book, Textbook of psychopharmacology edited by Alan S. Schatzberg and Charles B. Nemeroff (1995). This book is written by two clinical psychiatrists and is oriented chiefly to the practicing consultation-liaison (C-L) clinician. The four sections in the book are organized as follows. The first section is entitled, "Principles of Psychopharmacology" and includes chapters on neurotransmitters, electrophysiology, and pharmacokinetics. The second section, entitled "Classes of Psychiatric Drugs: Animal and Human Pharmacology," presents information by classes of drugs. The third section, "Clinical Psychobiology and Psychiatric Syndromes," reviews some of the data on the biological "underpinnings" of specific disorders—such as Major Depression, Panic Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, and Substance Dependence Disorders. The fourth and final section, which is more practitioner-oriented, is entitled, "Psychopharmacological Treatment." It reviews some of the current clinical approaches to patients with specific disorders and focuses on specific age groups or circumstances—such as emergencies, geriatric cases, pregnancy and lactation, and medically ill patients. The final appendix of the book reviews promising psychopharmacological agents that are available in Europe that may ultimately become available in the U.S. The intended readership is practicing clinicians who have a general practice and who devote a high percentage of time to consultation-liaison activities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Assessment and modification of emotional behavior.

Reviews the book, Assessment and Modification of Emotional Behavior edited by Kirk R. Blankstein, Patricia Pliner, and Janet Polivy ( 1980). This book brings together a collection of papers by participants at a symposium held at the University of Toronto's Erindale College. Although both assessment and modification are treated within each paper, the book can be divided into roughly two parts. Chapters 2, 3, 4, and 7 focus on assessment. Both Averill and Zuckerman raise the issue of why negative emotional terms occur more often in both psychology and the common vocabulary. Zuckerman argues convincingly that therapy removing unpleasant emotions is dealing with only one half of the problem and it might be useful to induce pleasant emotions since these may "innoculate" clients against future negative experiences. Plutchik reviews his theory on the evolutionary origins of emotions and extends it to the identification of traits and defense mechanisms. Meichenbaum's chapter on "cognitive ethology" discusses the two-way relationship between emotions and cognitions and reviews different procedures for studying cognitions accompanying emotional behaviour. The remainder of the book deals with modification of behaviour and includes chapters on depression, anxiety, and heart attack related stress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Cognitive therapy of anxiety disorders: Science and practice.

Reviews the book, Cognitive therapy of anxiety disorders: Science and practice edited by David A. Clark and Aaron T. Beck (2009). Drs. Clark and Beck’s book Cognitive therapy of anxiety disorders: Science and practise is a comprehensive review of cognitive therapy for anxiety from its empirical theoretical foundation to its clinical application to disorders. Although the focus of the text is ultimately on the cognitive treatment of anxiety, the rich theoretical background that is interwoven throughout makes this book of interest to academics and graduate students as well as clinicians. The book is divided into three parts, each with several chapters: 1) cognitive theory and research on anxiety; 2) assessment and intervention techniques used in cognitive therapy for anxiety; and 3) the application of cognitive therapy to specific anxiety disorders (e.g., panic disorder, obsessive– compulsive disorder [OCD]). Overall, this book is an excellent resource for researchers and clinicians working in the field of anxiety disorders. The reference section alone makes it a valuable addition to one’s bookshelf, and the authors have done an excellent job of organising a vast, and at time disparate, body of research into a cohesive review of cognitive theory as it applies to anxiety. Although the treatment chapters may be a bit overly ambitious in attempting to review both the research and the application of the cognitive model to the treatment of specific disorders, the book in its entirety is clearly an essential text for those interested in obtaining a comprehensive understanding of cognitive therapy and anxiety. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Les troubles anxieux: Approche cognitive et comportementale.

Reviews the book, Les troubles anxieux: Approche cognitive et comportementale by Robert Ladouceur, André Marchand, and Jean-Marie Boisvert (1999). This volume offers an excellent source of information for private practitioners, students, and trainees. After a brief introduction, each chapter describes a particular anxiety disorder and explores the following topics: DSM-IV diagnosis, prevalence and comorbidity, major elements of differential diagnosis, evaluation and instrumental measures, intervention strategies, and future research. Case studies are included. The authors clearly transmit current scientific knowledge on anxiety disorders and therapeutic applications. The cognitive behavioral approach integrates therapeutic strategies with demonstrated effectiveness. Therefore, this book is impossible to circumvent. Any professional who is interested in anxiety disorders should read and re-read this volume. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Whither dislocations?

Some speculations are offered where dislocation theory may be headed. This paper is based on a presentation made at the symposium “50th Anniversary of the Introduction of Dislocations” held at the fall meeting of the TMS-AIME in Detroit, Michigan in October 1984 under the TMS-AIME Mechanical Metallurgy and Physical Metallurgy Committees.     

Popular self-help books for anxiety, depression, and trauma: How scientifically grounded and useful are they?

Self-help books for psychological disorders have become increasingly popular, yet there is surprisingly little research on their scientific status or overall utility. The authors identified 50 top-selling self-help books for anxiety, depressive, and trauma-related disorders. Using a scale derived from the literature on bibliotherapy, expert psychologists rated each book on overall usefulness, grounding in psychological science, the extent to which it offers reasonable expectations, the extent to which it offers specific guidance for implementing the self-help techniques and for monitoring treatment progress, and whether it offers potentially harmful advice. The results revealed strong intercorrelations among the scales, such that books scoring high along one dimension tended to score high along others. There was wide variability in the overall quality of the books, but several factors emerged as predictors of book quality. The most highly rated books tended to be those having a cognitive behavioral perspective, those written by mental health professionals, those written by authors holding a doctoral degree, and those focusing on specific problems. Implications of the findings, including specific recommendations for authors and consumers of self-help books, are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Experimental techniques in human neuropsychology.

Reviews the book, Experimental techniques in human neuropsychology by H. J. Hannay (1986). With the growth of the field of neuropsychology during the last few decades, research related to the varied aspects of human neuropsychology has progressed with insufficient attention to the quality of the methods employed. Certainly, the need for this type of book is unquestionable. This edited volume is designed to present a variety of procedures and current technologies at a level which can be beneficial to both the novice and the expert researcher in various areas of neuropsychology. It is, for the most part, successful in explaining techniques in sufficient detail for the new researcher while also presenting recent advances of interest to the more experienced researcher. The volume contains chapters approximately equally divided between behavioral and physiological measures, written by authors who have established reputations in the research areas which they discuss. Although this book addressed a broad range of experimental topics in neuropsychology, it should provide particular appeal to those interested in methods of investigating cerebral dominance and asymmetry. The research populations discussed represent a diverse mix of neurologically impaired adult groups, with a brief mention of child populations in two chapters. The strength of this book lies on the questions raised about the status of current neuropsychological research techniques. The chapters are well written and are structured in a clearly organized manner that provides ready assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of each technique. Researchers in almost every area of neuropsychology should find this book a valuable aid in designing studies by avoiding the pitfalls which have beset other projects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Motivational interviewing in the treatment of psychological problems.

Reviews the book, Motivational interviewing in the treatment of psychological problems by Hal Arkowitz, Henny A. Westra, William R. Miller, and Stephen Rollnick (2007). The purpose of this book is to describe applications of motivational interviewing (MI) to the treatment of a variety of psychological disorders. This excellent book, edited by the originators of MI (Miller and Rollnick) along with two highly regarded scientist-practitioners (Arkowitz and Westra), begins with an introduction to the spirit and techniques of MI and provides an overview of the ways in which MI has been applied in clinical practise. The main portion of the book consists of 11 chapters written by foremost MI experts describing the use of MI in their research and clinical work treating anxiety disorders, depression, pathological gambling, eating disorders, and schizophrenia spectrum disorders, as well as the use of MI in the corrections system and with suicidal and dually diagnosed patients. Each chapter is similarly organised and offers a brief overview of the clinical population and treatment as usual, a rationale for using MI in treatment, a summary of available research regarding the use of MI in the population, and detailed examples of clinical applications of MI to treatment, including problems and suggested solutions. The chapters are well written and informative, with many offering vivid clinical examples. It is difficult to identify any significant weaknesses. There is some redundancy throughout the text, particularly with regard to the general spirit, principles, and techniques of MI. This is likely intentional and meant to reiterate important points; it also nicely allows each chapter to stand alone. In sum, this terrific book provides a highly readable and informative account of the application of MI to the treatment of psychological problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)