Special Topics: Managing Mental Health

Against All Odds: Psychosocial Distress and Healing among Women uses vivid ethnographic narratives to study linkages between socio-economic conditions and the mental health of women living in low-income neighborhoods of big cities. After presenting anthropological insights related to the understanding of madness, mental health and mental illness, the author illustrates how the social position of women and factors inherent in urbanism have an impact on the level of psychosocial distress they experience. Nayar also takes stock of the different kinds of local 'healing' processes sought by women, and examines how the women's movement and cultural ways of healing have helped women in reducing the distress and violence in their everyday lives. Drawing from the author's ethnographic research in Delhi, the book offers a vital exploration of the interactions between individuals and systems, and argues that an equitable society is what is required to reduce psychosocial distress.

The rise--and fall--of research into the therapeutic potential of LSD. After LSD arrived in the United States in 1949, the drug's therapeutic promise quickly captured the interests of psychiatrists. In the decade that followed, modern psychopharmacology was born and research into the drug's perceptual and psychological effects boomed. By the early 1960s, psychiatrists focused on a particularly promising treatment known as psychedelic therapy: a single, carefully guided, high-dose LSD session coupled with brief but intensive psychotherapy. Researchers reported an astounding 50 percent success rate in treating chronic alcoholism, as well as substantial improvement in patients suffering from a range of other disorders. Yet despite this success, LSD officially remained an experimental drug only. Research into its effects, psychological and otherwise, dwindled before coming to a close in the 1970s. In The Trials of Psychedelic Therapy, Matthew Oram traces the early promise and eventual demise of LSD psychotherapy in the United States. While the common perception is that LSD's prohibition terminated legitimate research, Oram draws on files from the Food and Drug Administration and the personal papers of LSD researchers to reveal that the most significant issue was not the drug's illegality, but the persistent question of its efficacy. The landmark Kefauver-Harris Drug Amendments of 1962 installed strict standards for efficacy evaluation, which LSD researchers struggled to meet due to the unorthodox nature of their treatment. Exploring the complex interactions between clinical science, regulation, and therapeutics in American medicine, The Trials of Psychedelic Therapy explains how an age of empirical research and limited government oversight gave way to sophisticated controlled clinical trials and complex federal regulations.

Intervention with patients who have had a traumatic experience in a health care setting is crucial not only to prevent long-term psychological issues, but also to help patients reduce anxiety when seeking medical help in the future. This groundbreaking book is the first to conceptualize medical trauma and provide mental health and health care professionals with best practices for treating such trauma in health care settings. It delivers in-depth systems-level strategies for supporting patients and their families who experience distress in the medical setting or as a result of life-threatening or life-altering diagnoses and procedures, and describes innovative models for integrating mental health professionals into current health care teams. Written for both mental health and health care leaders and professionals, the book reflects the growing trend toward inter-professional practice and training in health care, as well as the growth of patient-centered and person-centered care.

Beyond PTSD: Helping and Healing Teens Exposed to Trauma helps adults recognize and understand traumatized youth, and provides concrete strategies for talking to and engaging the teen, overcoming resistance, and finding the most appropriate evidence-based treatment approach for them. Nearly twenty contributors pull from their extensive and varied experience working in schools and hospitals to child welfare programs, juvenile justice facilities, pediatric offices, and with families to provide concrete tips to manage the challenges and opportunities of working with trauma-exposed adolescents.

Most of us at some point in our lives will be struck by major traumas such as the sudden death of a loved one, a debilitating disease, assault, or a natural disaster. Resilience refers to the ability to 'bounce back' after encountering difficulty. This book provides a guide to building emotional, mental and physical resilience by presenting ten factors to help anyone become more resilient to life's challenges. Specific resilience factors such as facing fear, optimism, and social support are described through the experiences and personal reflections of highly resilient survivors. These survivors also describe real-life methods for practicing and benefiting from the resilience factors. As resilience is the complex product of genetic, psychological, biological, social, and spiritual factors, the authors investigate resilience from multiple scientific perspectives. They synthesize the latest literature on the topic, describe their own research on resilience, and quote from their interviews with highly resilient people.