Author Description

Over 27 million adults and 7.5 million children in the United States have a diagnosable mental disorder--more than the combines total of people with cancer, heart disease, and lung disorders. Yet the saddest facts is not that so many people are so troubles, but that so few get help. This volume is a compendium of mental health and mental disorders--and an indispensable guide to what can be done to help. It offers lucid presentations of these conditions in a systematic format: what each is, how it feels, signs and symptoms, causes, when to seek help, how it is diagnosed, treatments (therapy, medications, self-help), risks and complications, its impact on relationships, and the prognosis. Each disorder is illuminated by vivid case histories--personal voices--and includes the diagnostic criteria of the American Psychiatric Association's definitiveDiagnostic And Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (1994), known asDSM-IVSpecial chapters deal with mental health problems in children and the elderly. This book is a wise, practical, and insightful guide to living as full and satisfying a life as possible for persons with problems and for those who love them.