Stress and Struggles: The Comprehensive book of Stress, Mental health and Mental Illness

A new book titled ‘Stress and Struggles: The Comprehensive book of Stress, Mental health and Mental Illness’ was released virtually on 19 December 2020 during the Indo UK Symposium on Stress and Mental Health.

The Foreword of the book was written by World Psychiatric Association (WPA) President, Dr Afzal Javed, and launched by him and Dr Pratima Murthy, (Professor and Head, Department of Psychiatry, NIMHANS, Bengaluru, India) at the Symposium.

The book was developed for trainees and medical students who expressed desire for a publication that would provide precise answers to their questions on stress and its effects on mental health. Some common questions for which both professionals and trainees were seeking more exacting answers, included: What is stress? How is it assessed and measured? Does stress cause mental illnesses? Can people develop mental illness without stressors? Can stress be managed and prevented? and so on. In addition to releasing the book, a panel discussion at the Symposium also addressed these questions.

The comprehensive book of 670 pages has 36 chapters, over 1000 cross references and about 100 illustrations. More than 65 colleagues involved in teaching, research and with a particular interest in stress across the world contributed to bring together several aspects of stress in one book. The content of each chapter is a distilled product of authors’ analysis on a specific aspect of stress from a sea of literature.

The book is organised thematically by dividing the content into five parts covering specific aspects of stress and its relation to mental illnesses for practical reasons. Part 1 of the book provides basic science aspects of stress such as evolution of the concept of stress, meaning and definition, classification, biological and psychological aspect of stress. Part 2 focuses on the illnesses caused by stress such as trauma and stress-related disorders, and disorders associated with stress. The focus of Part 3 is on the relationship between stress and individual psychiatric disorders; while Part 4 focuses on stress in relation to specific populations. Finally, Part 5 covers broad strategies on the management of stress.

The book is recommended for psychiatrists, psychologists, medical students and postgraduate trainees. It will provide recent updates on stress and mental health for postgraduate trainees in psychiatry, medicine, clinical psychology, social work and psychiatric nursing. The book is also useful for psychiatric and medical disciplines that come across patients with stress related disorders. In addition, researchers, academicians and policy makers interested in stress and related disorders would find the book useful.

The Book is edited by Dr Bettahalasoor Somashekar (bsomashekar@hotmail.com), Dr Narayana Manjunatha (manjunatha.adc@gmail.com), and Dr Santosh K Chaturvedi (skchatur@gmail.com). The Associate Editors are Dr Yamini Devendran, Consultant Psychiatrist Bengaluru and Dr Shalini Naik, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, NIMHANS.

Please contact the editors by email for more information or for a soft copy of the book.

Authors: Dr Bettahalasoor Somashekar, Consultant Psychiatrist, Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust Coventry UK; Dr Narayana Manjunatha, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, India; and Dr Santosh K Chaturvedi, Former Dean [Behavioural Sciences] and Senior Professor NIMHANS, Bangalore, India.