Marten W. De Vries – författare

This book is devoted to understanding the experience of distress, well-being and psychopathology in daily life, with the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) in psychiatry, and contains contributions from the leading international pioneers of this approach. Experience sampling is a methodology for collecting reliable and valid data on patterns of behaviour, thought and feeling from real-life situations. It thus yields data complementary to those 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. The editor, who did much to bring ESM to prominence in psychiatry, has assembled a fascinating range of contributions, many of them previously unpublished, dealing with the diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities of this approach.

This work addresses traumatic stress from a community perspective. The authors, drawn from among the fields of 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 contains 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.