Menopause: A Mental Health Practitioner's Guide
Posted on: Wednesday, 18 January 2006, 03:03 CST
By Reitsma, Ben
Menopause: A mental health practitioner's guide Donna E. Stewart (Editor) American Psychiatric Publishing Inc., 2005 ISBN 1585621609, 216 pp. $34.95
The goal of this book is to provide mental health professionals with information that will be helpful in formulating current best understanding and treatment for the psychological problems that a small but nevertheless substantial percentage of woman experience while traversing this life stage. To this end international menopause experts in psychiatry, neuroscience, gynaecology and internal medicine cover the field from broad and diverse perspectives.
The first chapter is devoted to contexts of midlife in women. The overarching feature for midlife women is change. From this perspective the following domains are discussed: psychosocial, workplace, medical, cultural, sexual, body image and mental health.
Chapter two is about physiology and symptoms of menopause, while chapter three is devoted to the effects of reproductive hormones and selective estrogen receptor modulators on the central nervous system, especially those brain systems that mediate depression and anxiety.
The topic of chapters four and five is on mood disorders and psychotic illness in women at perimenopause and menopause. Epidemiologic and clinic-based studies have suggested that in some middle-aged women, the perimenopause is associated with an increased vulnerability to depressions and psychotic illness.
In chapter six the medical aspects of perimenopause and menopause are discussed. It is suggested that hormone therapy can affect these conditions and highlights important recent findings in these areas.
Chapter seven highlights the gynecologic aspects of perimenopause and menopause.
The final chapter is devoted to the psychopathology and psychotherapy of older women.
This chapter concludes with the notion that the mental health practitioner, through social, pharmacological, and psychotherapeutic intervention and collaborative working relationships with other health care providers, can play a critical role in promoting health and ameliorating distress and psychiatric morbidity.
All in all, an interesting book that is certainly well worth reading. It provides the mental health professional with the present state of knowledge on menopause from broad and diverse perspectives. The extensive list of references presented at the end of each chapter offers the possibility for a more indepth study on relevant topics. This book may be therefore not only of interest to junior mental health professionals but also to seniors.
BEN REITSMA
University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands
Copyright CRC Press Dec 2005
Source: Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynecology
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