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This compendium of 17 articles addresses the goals set forth by the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health in its 2003 report, Achieving the Promise: Transforming Mental Health Care in America. The report represents the first time since the Carter Administration that such a high-level group evaluated U.S. mental health care. The report painted a dismal picture of the nation's mental health system, saying the system was so broken that it was «beyond simple repair.» The Commission said that current services focused on «managing disabilities» rather than helping patients achieve a meaningful life in their communities. It also stated that mental health service providers ignored the preferences of consumers and their families.The articles in Transforming Mental Health Services: Implementing the Federal Agenda for Change, originally published between 2006 and 2009 in Psychiatric Services (journal of the American Psychiatric Association), offer recommendations to assist adults with serious mental illness and children with serious emotional disturbances. They include a series of reforms in which the emphasis is on recovery as an achievable goal, and the need for a person-centered orientation in service delivery. There is also discussion of the reasons many service providers resist using a recovery orientation and how this can be remedied.Transforming Mental Health Services: Implementing the Federal Agenda for Change consists of updates of papers written by the Commission's subcommittees addressing issues fundamental to those living with mental illness. It is organized into four sections: The first focuses on the interface between mental health and general health, and on employment, housing, and Medicaid financing. The second continues addressing financing and Medicaid as well as issues related to school mental health, recovery, transformation of data systems, and acceleration of research. The third includes reports from four states with transformation initiatives designed to ensure that consumers have a strong voice in the development of recovery-oriented services. The final section describes progress five years after the President's Commission Report and concludes with a proposal by the current director of the Center for Mental Health Services for a public health model of mental health care for the 21st century. This compilation of well-researched and well-written articles offers an excellent resource for frontline care providers, facility administrators and advocates. It serves as an equally valuable resource for state policy makers who wish to present a convincing case that change is happening and that the recommendations can be translated into effective policies. Although consumers and their families will receive support for their perception that service providers ignore their needs, they will also be encouraged that change for the better is coming to the U.S. mental health care system.

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Sometimes described as «the nemesis of the primary care physician,» somatoform disorders are frustrating, expensive to treat, and under-investigated. Somatic Presentations of Mental Disorders provides a fascinating and practical review of the epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment of this ill-defined category of disease. Somatic Presentations of Mental Disorders summarizes the proceedings of a unique international conference that convened experts from across disciplines to review perspectives on somatoform disorders. The broad range of experience and specialization results in a compendium that addresses both theoretical and practical issues presented in somatoform disorders. For the researcher, the book offers a thorough and critical overview of the research landscape, surveying and synthesizing the available literature from around the world on all aspects of the disorder. Acknowledging the unique challenges presented in studying such a heterogeneous collection of disorders, the authors identify specific gaps in the research literature. Somatic Presentations of Mental Disorders also addresses controversial issues of nosology in advance of the publication of DSM-V.Despite its utility for researchers, the book primarily serves as an invaluable reference and resource for the practitioner. Organized with the clinician in mind, Somatic Presentations of Mental Disorders surveys the latest data on phenomenology; etiology and clinical course; and treatment options. Unlike other literature on this difficult topic, the authors thoroughly explore the entire range of this category of disorders, including conversion disorder, chronic pain and fatigue, and the multitude of presentations of medically unexplained symptoms. Aimed at both primary care and mental health practitioners, the book addresses crucial issues for effective diagnosis and treatment, including: Comorbidity and association with anxiety and depressive disorders Unique insights into cultural factors affecting the presentation and treatment of somatic disorders around the globe The prevalence of misdiagnosis, and contemporary diagnostic tools and techniques to help avoid a missed organic diagnosis The complicated interrelationship of somatoform disorders and substance abuse The efficacy of various treatment modalities, including pharmacology and cognitive behavioral therapy Collaboration between primary care and mental health providers to maximize treatment outcomes Comprehensive, thoughtful, and up-to-date, Somatic Presentations of Mental Disorders is a must-have both for researchers in the field and for clinicians with somatizing patients.

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As disorders in which stress or fear play major roles present an increasing need for psychiatric care around the world, this volume summarizes current research to determine whether a specific group of stress-induced and fear-based disorders form a distinct syndrome independent from other anxiety disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder or generalized anxiety. Intended to suggest DSM-V revisions regarding the classification of these disorders, Stress-Induced and Fear Circuitry Disorders reflects findings that may lead to more refined treatments for these specific anxiety disorders based on a better understanding of the biological and environmental factors that contribute to their development and symptoms.Thirty contributors, all international authorities on this group of mental illnesses, clarify how these disorders develop and what factors contribute to symptomatology. Focusing on posttraumatic stress disorder, panic disorder and agoraphobia, social phobias, and specific phobia, the authors explore the possibility of linking the classification and etiology of these conditions by showing that they may be closely related in terms of brain pathophysiology. In addition to assessing the stability of disorders across patient lifespans and determining whether they form a cohesive and distinct group, the authors examine shared etiologies and biopsychosocial correlates, as well as aspects unique to each disorder. Among the book's specific insights: How minority populations, particularly African Americans, are differentially affected by these disorders. The neuronal mechanisms of normal fear and anxiety, including how changes in the genetics of the serotonin system can increase the risk of anxiety. The role of cognition in symptom presentation and treatment, revealing cognitive biases that favor the processing of threat-related information. The contribution of stress and psychosocial factors, such as peer victimization and childhood sexual abuse. The use of neuroimaging to analyze neural structure and function for each of the four disorder groups. How neurochemistry and neuroendocrine markers may aid in classification of anxiety disorders. The contribution of substance abuse to the pathophysiology of these disorders. Given the importance of changes to DSM for professional education and public health, this book offers important new ways of thinking about stress-induced and fear-based disorders. It not only allows researchers to more accurately assess their diagnostic classifications, but also can help clinicians more effectively communicate with patients regarding the nature of their illness and the importance of adhering to treatment regimens.

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In Psychotherapy Is Worth It: A Comprehensive Review of Its Cost-Effectiveness, edited by Susan G. Lazar, M.D., and co-authored with members of the Committee on Psychotherapy of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, surveys the medical, psychiatric and psychological literature from 1984 to 2007 that is relevant to the cost-effectiveness of all kinds of psychotherapy. The volume explores the cost of providing psychotherapy in relation to its impact both on health and on the costs to society of psychiatric illness and related conditions.Written for psychotherapists, psychiatric benefit providers, policy makers, and others interested in the cost-effectiveness of providing psychotherapeutic treatments, this book analyzes the burden of mental illness, particularly in the United States, and the enormous associated costs to society that constitute a chronic, insufficiently recognized crisis in the health of our nation. The authors point out that in the United States nearly 30% of the population over the age of 18 has a diagnosable psychiatric disorder and yet only about 33% of those treated receive minimally adequate care. In fact, most people with mental disorders in the United States remain untreated or poorly treated, leading to loss in productivity, higher rates of absenteeism, increased costs, morbidity and mortality from medical illnesses, and loss of life through suicide.This book provides a systematic and comprehensive review of 25 years of medical literature on the cost-effectiveness of psychotherapy and discusses the: Epidemiology of mental illness, including prevalence and treatment rates Misconceptions and stigmas associated with psychiatric illness and the provision of psychotherapy and how they affect those most in need of care Cost-effectiveness of psychotherapy for the major psychiatric disorders as well as savings that psychotherapy can yield in increased health, work productivity, lives saved, and medical and hospital related costs For instance, in a review of 18 studies conducted from 1984 to 1994, psychotherapy was found to be cost-effective in treating patients with severe disorders, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and borderline personality disorder, and led to improved work functioning and decreased hospitalization. Likewise, studies point to the enhancement of outcomes when psychotherapy is used in conjunction with medical therapies in the treatment of cancer, heart disease, and other prevalent, chronic diseases. Psychotherapy Is Worth It: A Comprehensive Review of Its Cost-Effectiveness concludes that studies confirm psychotherapy works for many conditions, is cost-effective, and is not over-used by those persons not truly in need. A treatment that is cost-effective is not «cheap»; rather, it can provide effective medical help at a cost acceptable to society, in comparison both to other effective treatments for the same condition and to medical treatments for other classes of mental disorder.

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Traditionally viewed as an abstraction, the quantitative nature of money is essential in evaluating the relationship between monetary systems and society. Money Counts moves beyond abstraction, exploring the conceptual diversity and everyday enactment of money’s quantity. Drawing from case studies including British jewelers, blood-money payments in Germanic law codes, and the quotidian use of money in cosmopolitical Moscow, a Western Kenyan village, and socialist Havana, the chapters in this volume offer new theoretical and empirical interpretations of money’s quantitative nature as it relates to abstraction, sociality, materiality, freedom, and morality.

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Is global violence on the decline? Steven Pinker’s highly-publicized argument that human violence across the world has been dramatically abating continues to influence discourse among academics and the general public alike. In this provocative volume, a cast of eminent historians interrogate Pinker’s thesis by exposing the realities of violence throughout human history. In doing so, they reveal the history of human violence to be richer, more thought-provoking, and considerably more complicated than Pinker claims.

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Thirty years after the collapse of Communism, and at a time of increasing anti-migrant and anti-Roma sentiment, this book analyses how Roma identity is expressed in contemporary Europe. From backgrounds ranging from political theory, postcolonial, cultural and gender studies to art history, feminist critique and anthropology, the contributors reflect on the extent to which a politics of identity regarding historically disadvantaged, racialized minorities such as the Roma can still be legitimately articulated.

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Informed by Eric Wolf’s Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century , published in 1969, this book examines selected peasant struggles in seven Latin American countries during the last fifty years and suggests the continuing relevance of Wolf’s approach. The seven case studies are preceded by an Introduction in which the editors assess the continuing relevance of Wolf’s political economy. The book concludes with Gavin Smith’s reflection on reading Eric Wolf as a public intellectual today.

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In the 1960s and 1970s, the educational systems in Spain and Latin America underwent comprehensive and ambitious reforms that took place amid a «revolution of expectations» arising from decolonization, global student protests, and the antagonism between capitalist and communist models of development. Deploying new archival research and innovative perspectives, the contributions to this volume examine the influence of transnational forces during the cultural Cold War. They shed new light on the roles played by the United States, non-state actors, international organizations and theories of modernization and human capital in educational reform efforts in the developing Hispanic world.

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Focusing on mobility, religion, and belonging, the volume contributes to transatlantic anthropology and history by bringing together religion, cultural heritage and placemaking in the Atlantic world. The entanglements of these domains are ethnographically scrutinized to perceive the connections and disconnections of specific places which, despite a common history, are today very different in terms of secular regimes and the presence of religion in the public sphere. Ideally suited to a variety of scholars and students in different fields, Atlantic Perspectives will lead to new debates and conversations throughout the fields of anthropology, religion and history.

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