Psychological Treatment of Chronic Illness: A Biopsychosocial Therapy Approach

A diagnosis of diabetes was once considered a death sentence. Asthma and hypertension were once basically untreatable. Medical science has prolonged the lives of many people substantially, but the fact is there is no "cure" for many life-long diseases and conditions, leaving many to deal with the biological, social and psychological effects of their situation for extended periods of time. Sperry (psychiatry, Florida Atlantic U. and the Medical College of Wisconsin) describes a therapeutic approach designed to address all these aspects of the lives of the chronically ill, providing an overarching model and applying it to such conditions as arthritis, cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome, epilepsy, irritable bowel syndrome, and lupus. He describes how personality affects responses to chronic illness, and on a practical level, how therapy approaches can work, how to assess and conceptualize cases, and how to create strategies. Annotation c2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)