Extreme Stress and Communities: Impact and Intervention is the first volume to address traumatic stress from a community perspective. The authors, drawn from among the world's leaders in psychology, psychiatry and anthropology, examine how extreme stress, such as war, disasters and political upheaval, interact in their effects on individuals, families and communities. The book is rich in both theoretical insight and practical experience. It informs readers about how to adopt a community perspective and how to apply this perspective to policy, research and intervention.

Primary care medicine is the new frontier in medicine. Every nation in the world has recognized the necessity to deliver personal and primary care to its people. This includes first-contact care, care based in a positive and caring personal rela tionship, care by a single healthcare provider for the majority of the patient's prob lems, coordination of all care by the patient's personal provider, advocacy for the patient by the provider, the provision of preventive care and psychosocial care, as well as care for episodes of acute and chronic illness. These facets of care work most effectively when they are embedded in a coherent integrated approach. The support for primary care derives from several significant trends. First, technologically based care costs have rocketed beyond reason or availability, occurring in the face of exploding populations and diminishing real resources in many parts of the world, even in the wealthier nations. Simultaneously, the primary care disciplines-general internal medicine and pediatrics and family medicine-have matured significantly. They have become viable alternatives to the specialty approach to care with its potential dehumanization, coordination problems, and increased cost."

Extreme Stress and Communities: Impact and Intervention is the first volume to address traumatic stress from a community perspective. The authors, drawn from among the world's leaders in psychology, psychiatry and anthropology, examine how extreme stress, such as war, disasters and political upheaval, interact in their effects on individuals, families and communities. The book is rich in both theoretical insight and practical experience. It informs readers about how to adopt a community perspective and how to apply this perspective to policy, research and intervention.

This book is devoted to the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) in psychiatry; a methodology for collecting reliable and valid data on patterns of behavior, thought, and feeling from real-life situations. ESM thus yields data complementary to that provided by neurobiological approaches to mental illnesses and is applicable to the study and management of a wide variety of mental disorders in their natural settings. Marten de Vries, who did much to bring ESM to prominence in psychiatry, has assembled a fascinating range of contributions from leading international pioneers in ESM-- many which have never before been published--dealing with the diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities of this approach. Methodological and practical issues are also addressed for those wishing to use ESM in their own research or practice. Case studies illustrate the uses of experience sampling in schizophrenia, depression, eating disorders and addictions, and there are also chapters devoted to ESM's application to the elderly, those under stress, and to normal subjects.