Women's Health: Hormones, Emotions and Behavior (Psychiatry and Medicine)

This book offers an overview of the complex interplay between hormonal activation and individual and environmental influences on health and disease in women. The book provides useful information and background material important for treating problems related to the reproductive cycle, eating disorders, drug treatment of women, and clinical and treatment issues in coronary artery disease and breast cancer. This is a medically-oriented book written firstly for the practicing physician in primary care, psychiatry, internal medicine and gynecology/obstetrics. This book takes a much broader view than others on the market by combining consideration of both psychological and physical disorders affecting women and by discussing treatment issues.

Describes the interplay between environment, genes and mental health in women.

Shirley Hartlage

This collection of recent writings examines an array of psychiatric disorders and physical diseases affecting women, and discusses those meriting further study. The range of problems addressed include eating disorders, breast cancer, anxiety and depression, the intricacies of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical system, and women's increasing risk for coronary artery disease. The editor (who is also a contributor) has assembled an ambitious book in a usable and straightforward manner. Evident throughout is the theme that hormonal balance and environmental factors, along with genetic predisposition, greatly influence the presentation of disorders in women. Also evident in the commentary from the 17 contributors is the scarcity of research in the field of women's health, as well as a call for more funds for further study. The purpose is to report recent data on the interactions between hormonal activity and individual and environmental influences on women's health. The target audience is psychiatrists, physicians practicing in internal medicine and gynecology and obstetrics, and medical students. The book has few illustrations, but they are not vital to the book's purpose. The references appear current and relevant. A helpful table of contents is provided. The book has an attractive purple cover, but may not be as durable as one would like. Physicians dealing with women's health will no doubt find useful information in every chapter, but four chapters are particularly noteworthy. Chapter 1, ""Growing up Female,"" surveys the variety of physiological and societal forces at play throughout the maturation process for a young woman in western culture. Chapter 7 examines theinterweaving of psychosocial factors and physiological processes in the etiology of eating disorders. In Chapter 8, the contributors consider the evolution of women's role in the workplace and point out that women with Type A personalities have an increased risk for coronary artery disease. Chapter 10 highlights gender differences in drug response, as well as drug safety during pregnancy and breast feeding. Although the editor capably presents a variety of related topics in one book, the value of the book would be increased if more information was provided in many of the chapters. In part, this appears to be a function of the paucity of existing knowledge about some of the subjects. Despite this, those who regularly treat women in practice should find the book a useful update of current knowledge.

Offers an overview of the complex interplay between hormonal activation and individual and environmental influences in health and disease in women. The book provides useful information and background material important for treating psychological and physical problems in women. This medically orientated book, written firstly for the practising physician, provides useful information and background material important for treating problems such as those related to the reproductive cycle and breast cancer, for example