Barely more than twenty years ago the inquiry into the nature and implications of the psychophysiologic stress response seemed to be restricted to laboratory animals. Today, however, scientists from a wide range of disciplines are studying stress and its implications for human health and disease. This may be because our technical ability actually to measure the phenomenon has increased, as has our understanding of human psychophysiology. Just as important, how ever, may be the fact that we have entered a new era of disease. According to Kenneth Pelletier, we have entered upon an era in which stress plays a dominant role in the determination of human disease. Pelletier has stated that up to 90% of all disease may be stress-related. Whether this estimation seems inflated or not, the fact remains that clinicians of all kinds, including physicians, psychologists, physical therapists, social workers, and counselors, are daily being confronted with clients suffering from excessive psychophysiologic stress arousal. This fact has created a need to know more about the stress response and its treatment. Although more and more health-care professionals are directly or indirectly working with clients who manifest excessive stress, there has been no text previously written which attempted to condensE' between the covers of a single volume a practical, clinically compre hensive discussion of what stress is (as best we currently understand it) and how to treat it when it becomes excessive.

In 1981, Plenum Press published a text entitled The Nature and Treatment of the Stress Response by Robert Rosenfeld, M. D. , and me. That text attempted to do what no other text from a major publisher had previously attempted, that is, to create a clinically practical guide for the treatment of excessive stress and its arousal-related syndromes-this to be captured between the same covers in combination with a detailed, clinically relevant pedagogy on the neurological and endocrinological foundations of the stress re sponse itself. That volume has enjoyed considerable success having found markets among practicing professionals and clinical students as well. The fields of psychosomatic medicine, health psychology, behavioral medicine, and applied stress research have appreciably expanded their boundaries since the publication of the aforementioned volume. Although remarkably little of the clinical utility of that volume has been eroded with time, it was felt that an updated and more integrative clinical textbook needed to be offered to practicing clinicians and students within clinical rather than simply create a second edition of training programs. Therefore, was made to create a significantly revised the original volume, the decision and expanded volume that would cover many of the same topics as the original volume but would provide a primary emphasis on the treatment of excessive stress and that would employ an integrative phenomenological model to facilitate that end. This present volume entitled A Clinical Guide to the Treatment of the Human Stress Response is the result.

In 1981, Plenum Press published a text entitled The Nature and Treatment of the Stress Response by Robert Rosenfeld, M. D. , and me. That text attempted to do what no other text from a major publisher had previously attempted, that is, to create a clinically practical guide for the treatment of excessive stress and its arousal-related syndromes-this to be captured between the same covers in combination with a detailed, clinically relevant pedagogy on the neurological and endocrinological foundations of the stress re sponse itself. That volume has enjoyed considerable success having found markets among practicing professionals and clinical students as well. The fields of psychosomatic medicine, health psychology, behavioral medicine, and applied stress research have appreciably expanded their boundaries since the publication of the aforementioned volume. Although remarkably little of the clinical utility of that volume has been eroded with time, it was felt that an updated and more integrative clinical textbook needed to be offered to practicing clinicians and students within clinical rather than simply create a second edition of training programs. Therefore, was made to create a significantly revised the original volume, the decision and expanded volume that would cover many of the same topics as the original volume but would provide a primary emphasis on the treatment of excessive stress and that would employ an integrative phenomenological model to facilitate that end. This present volume entitled A Clinical Guide to the Treatment of the Human Stress Response is the result.

Pituitary Adenylate Cyclase-Activating Polypeptide is the first volume to be written on the neuropeptide PACAP. It covers all domains of PACAP from molecular and cellular aspects to physiological activities and promises for new therapeutic strategies. Pituitary Adenylate Cyclase-Activating Polypeptide is the twentieth volume published in the Endocrine Updates book series under the Series Editorship of Shlomo Melmed, MD.

Scientific advances in our understanding of animal physiology and behavior often require theories to be revised and standards of practice to be updated to improve laboratory animal welfare. This new book from the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research (ILAR) at the National Research Council, Recognition and Alleviation of Distress in Laboratory Animals, focuses on the stress and distress which is experienced by animals when used in laboratory research. This book aims to educate laboratory animal veterinarians; students, researchers, and investigators; animal care staff, as well as animal welfare officers on the current scientific and ethical issues associated with stress and distress in laboratory animals. It evaluates pertinent scientific literature to generate practical and pragmatic guidelines. Recognition and Alleviation of Distress in Laboratory Animals focuses specifically on the scientific understanding of the causes and the functions of stress and distress, the transformation of stress to distress, and the identification of principles for the recognition and alleviation of distress. This book discusses the role of humane endpoints in situations of distress and principles for the minimization of distress in laboratory animals. It also identifies areas in which further scientific investigation is needed to improve laboratory animal welfare in order to adhere to scientific and ethical principles that promote humane care and practice.

In this revised and expanded second edition, Dr. Horowitz places special emphasis on treatment. The chapters on diagnosis, theory and therapeutic technique have been extensively revised. In ten years since the publication of the first edition, Dr. Horowitz has continued to direct the Centre for the Study of Neurosis at the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute of the University of California, placing particular emphasis on psychotherapy of stress response syndromes. This clinical work has provided the background for a greatly expanded discussion of treatment technique and a new chapter on therapeutics of stress response syndromes. Mental health professional who want to be effective with patients experiencing the stress of bereavement, traumatic accident, medical illness or other life events should find this book a useful guide.