Depression is considered as a complex problem with potentially serious economic consequences for affected individuals as well as public healthcare systems. There is much debate among laypersons, patients, academics and clinicians about the causes of depression, its clinical significance and the effect of conventional medical interventions such as antidepressants. This monograph showcases some aspects of depression through specific reviews on some of the intricacies behind its mechanism. The book includes five reviews on the subject, covering the significance of depression in patient well-being, an update on P300 wave findings and the link with clinical depression, the genomics behind depression, the effects of ageing on the onset of depression in stroke patients, and tensor imaging techniques used in studies on patients exhibiting suicidal behaviors as a result of major depressive disorder. This reference provides useful updates for healthcare workers, neuroscientists and behavioral scientists interested in basic research on depression and in planning to develop methods to study depression in either a clinical or laboratory setting

Suicide is a complex problem which is linked to socioeconomic problems as well as mental stress and illness. Healthcare professionals now know that the essential component of the suicidal person’s state of crisis is of a psychological and emotional nature. How to Help the Suicidal Person to Choose Life is a detailed guide to suicide prevention. The book recommends ethic of care and empathy as a tool for suicide intervention. Readers will learn about approaches that focus on suicide prevention that address the despairing emotional mind set of the suicidal person. Key features: • Features easy to understand learning guides for students • Emphasizes on suicide intervention strategies rather than identification of risk factors • highlights information from narrative case studies and psychological autopsies • includes practice and simulation exercises designed to enhance therapeutic modalities such as empathy, compassion, unconditional positive regard, connection, therapeutic alliance, the narrative action theoretical approach and mindful listening • Contains guidelines prescribed by the Aeschi working group for clinicians • Provides a list of bibliographic references and an appendix for other resources of information useful for suicide prevention This book is recommended for students and practicing professionals (in medicine, psychiatry, nursing, psychiatric nursing, psychology, counselling, teaching, social work, the military, police, paramedics etc.), and other first responders, volunteers or outreach workers who are confronted with situations where they have to assist people who are known or suspected of being suicidal.

This eBook provides critical information for mental health providers, including counselors, psychologists, and social workers, who are interested in providing services for children with chronic illnesses. The contents of the eBook focus on enhancing resilience in children with chronic illnesses or medical conditions and their families as they strive to adjust as the child copes with the waxing and waning symptoms of his or her illness. Practical suggestions for working with children and families are also provided along with a thorough review of relevant literature. Readers of this eBook will gain a better understanding of social work and health care issues related to promoting health and wellness among children suffering from long term illnesses. This eBook is also useful for graduate students training to become counselors or therapists.

Demographic changes due to improved life expectancy and access to medical care has increased the number of people aged 65 years and beyond. This raises an important new challenge for healthcare professionals. Changes in organ functions, homeostatic mechanisms and receptor responsiveness impair drug distribution, metabolism and excretion, and reduce the effectiveness of medicines among geriatric patients. As a consequence, management of medical regimens is much more challenging in the elderly than in younger adult patients. Elderly patients are also more susceptible than other age groups to certain drug-drug interactions, drug-disease interactions and adverse drug reactions owing to the number of drugs administered. Polypharmacy and potentially inappropriate medication is a common finding in the elderly healthcare and it is considered a public health issue related to morbidity, mortality and health care resource use. Psychopharmacological Issues in Geriatrics can be regarded as a ‘pharmacovigilance’ manual for elderly patients as it presents recommendations for geriatric prescription with specific considerations. The book also provides a comprehensive review of specific classes of psychopharmacological agents used to treat geriatric patients, including antipsychotics, anxiolytics, hypnotics and mood stabilizers. The book is intended as a handbook for general medical and nursing practitioners.

Substance and Non substance Related Addiction Disorders: Diagnosis and Treatment is an accessible handbook about the two main types of addiction disorders. It is divided into three sections which cover 1) the scientific underpinnings of addiction disorders (neurobiology, addiction neural reward pathways, genetic and psychosocial basis of addiction, screening and treatment), 2) information about substances commonly used by addicts (pharmacology, diagnostics and treatment considerations) and 3) current understandings of the diagnosis and treatment of behavioral problems (such as gambling), respectively. Key features: -covers both substance abuse and behavioral problems -uses a reader friendly format with a patient education handout style -includes key learning points listed in each chapter -includes clinical vignettes which outline brief history, evaluation, diagnostic considerations with successful pharmacological, psychological and social interventions -includes references in each chapter The handbook meets the information needs of medical students and professionals (family physicians, nurses, addiction therapists, psychiatry residents, and other health care professionals) interested in the primary care of patients afflicted with addiction disorders.

Thriving Across the Lifespan and Around the Globe: Day in the Life Visual Research Approach is the result of several decades of international, pan-disciplinary research-team collaborations using quasi-ecological visual methodologies to investigate the psychosocial development of children in diverse communities. The initial studies highlighted in this work involved filming a ‘Day in the Life’ of toddlers and primary school children, their families, and schools in diverse communities in Asia, South and North America, and Europe. Filmed in their homes and communities for an entire day, the youngest participants were commonly seen to be thriving in diverse psychosocial domains, such as in their security strivings, emergent literacy and graphic representations, and musicality. Research shows that the nature of a child's development can vary in as many ways as there are diverse contexts. Thriving in the transition from home to primary school is a second developmental milestone investigated in the research. The book serves as an account of the lived experiences of thriving children,among their families, their schools and their communities. The contents give an invaluable insight into the psychology of early childhood while giving the reader an opportunity to understand the resilience of mobile early teenagers as well as independent older adults. The contributions in the book also provide an additional layer to our understanding of visual ethnography by covering such phenomena as agency and communitarianism, spirituality, and the place of humour in the context of challenges encountered across the lifespan. Through presenting quasi-ecological experimental approaches, this reference enhances the reader’s insight into the texture and nature of thriving in situ, in natural contexts.

Based on six years of extended ethnography in multiple agricultural areas of the Eastern United States, Down Country Lanes, Behind Abandoned Houses is a monograph which explores the lives of migrant and seasonal farm workers. The six-year study secured multi-setting field data in primary, secondary and casual sites, and audio-taped narrative life stories from men and women who harvest and perform the related tasks that help to make the many foods which we enjoy in abundance. The study presented in this book elaborates vignettes from field observations with a focus on workers who use drugs and alcohol, and is complemented by formal (narrative life stories) and informal interviews. The author explores diverse field data that reveal the hardships, exclusion and social adversities that migrant farm workers experience many times more often than any other social group with considerable susceptibility to drug / alcohol use. Down Country Lanes, Behind Abandoned Houses gives readers a perspective about farm workers’ social vulnerability across multiple agricultural areas, while comparing willful neglect and social non-existence experienced by farm workers to a gray zone of contemporary horrors in the way that these men and women have been viewed and treated over many decades. The monograph is an invaluable reference for the study of social problems, substance abuse, trans-national migratory experiences and field methods in sociology. The book also serves as a contemporary handbook on the anthropology of American agricultural labor.

The Abu Serga Church is one of the oldest known Coptic churches in Egypt, with a history of almost 1700 years. This reference work presents a comprehensive geotechnical and geophysical survey of the vicinity of the Abu Serga Church. The book details the information of the survey using classical and modern methods of geotechnical engineering while keeping contemporary issues faced by site investigators in view. Chapters provide the data of the church site while covering topics of interest to students such as seismic analysis, 3-D modeling and historical preservation principles. Advanced methods of interest to engineers such as mathematical analysis using finite element methods are also covered. This work provides key data about the Abu Sega Church site and is of interest to scholars and engineers involved in conservation engineering of architectural heritage (or built heritage), as well as readers interested in church studies.

Serial Killers Around the World: The Global Dimensions of Serial Murder compiles serial murder case studies from several countries - from Australia to Great Britain, and from Japan to Pakistan. The author has covered accounts on a wide array of serial killers including some well known felons namely Jack the Ripper, The Butcher of Mons, Martin & Marie Dumollard, as well as some of the lesser known serial slayers such as Daisy DeMelker, Yoshio Kodaira, Javed Iqbal and many more. The book highlights six dimensions of each case: the killer(s), the serial murders, other crimes, communication, the investigation and trial and punishment of the accused. Readers, both general and aspiring criminologists alike, will find Serial Killers Around the World an interesting resource for critical information on serial murders committed in nations around the world.

The story of the unidentified serial killer in London’s Whitechapel district - known as Jack The Ripper – has been the subject of interest to researchers for over 120 years. The name ascribed to the individual was from a letter sent to the Central News Agency in London on 27 September 1888. Initially thought to be a hoax, the letter gained much publicity when the writer’s promise of clipping a lady’s ears off manifested after the discovery of the body of Catherine Eddowes with an ear lobe severed, 3 days after the letter was received. Several letters followed this and borrowed elements from the earlier correspondences. Jack the Writer: A Verbal & Visual Analysis of the Ripper Correspondence is a different approach to the subject of ‘Ripperology’. In this book, the author, Dirk Gibson, provides a quantitative content analysis of the letters. Gibson first grounds this study of the Jack the Ripper letters in an analysis of the legitimacy of the documents. The dialectic method is used to carefully consider the authenticity of these letters. The largest extant collection of Jack the Ripper letters is provided in this book, approximately 250 in number. The most significant part of this book is a trio of content analyses quantifying the themes, subjects, people and linguistic mannerisms mentioned in the Ripper letters; the analyses describe precisely what was and was not in these missives. The letters are described and presented in the context of their content, with the valid letters presented in chronological order. Jack the Writer: A Verbal & Visual Analysis of the Ripper Correspondence will give readers, whether generally interested in the ripper correspondence or undertaking courses in criminology or abnormal psychology, a glimpse of the cultural context of a serial murderer’s communication with the public and the press in Victorian times.