Psychosomatic Medicine

Psychiatric Times -- "The publication of a major new textbook is an important event in any discipline, but the arrival of Psychosomatic Medicine is a particularly exciting development for clinicians working in the interface between psychiatry and medicine. Blumenfield and Strain have done a masterly job of synthesizing the contributions of numerous leading authorities to provide structure for an emerging subspecialty that reconciles the competing demands of utility and comprehensiveness. If we add to this that the book comes with a CD-ROM of the entire text and useful trail software for patient care and medical student tracking, Blumenfield and Strain will surely play a central part in training of psychiatrists in psychosomatic medicine for many years to come."-Psychiatric Times New England Journal of Medicine, Volume 16, Issue 356 -- "In June 2005, the first subspecialty examination in psychosomatic medicine was administered by the American board of Psychiatry and Neurology. The publication of Psychosomatic Medicine, edited by Michael Blumenfield and James J. Strain, two distinguished psychiatrists and icons in the field, closely followed this landmark event. The book focuses on the challenges of diagnosis and treatment in psychosomatic medicine. The book contains a wealth of updated information and covers a wide spectrum of frequently encountered clinical problems. It also provides detailed discussions of ethics, forensic applications, pregnancy, sexuality, alcoholism, death and dying, and pain and palliative care. Overall, the chapters are well organized and include sections on diagnosis and treatment. At the end of each chapter, the authors discuss case-based examples of common problems. The book also comes with a DVD that contains the full text and searchable references and that provides users with PowerPoint lectures on selected topics and significant questions and answers that can used for teaching purposes."-The New England Journal of Medicine Journal of the American Medical Association, Volume 297, Issue 16 -- "Along with providing a comprehensive review of the psychosomatic literature, this book sets out to challenge the reader to consider how the field can progress using innovative technologies to support its own theory and practice. The editors propose that psychosomatic medicine can help translate knowledge from bench to bedside, not only informing psychiatrists but physicians in medicine and surgery. To this end, the book provides the psychosomatic physician-teacher with the necessary tools to facilitate this process. Particular strengths of this book include the use of highlighted clinical case examples and carefully referenced descriptions of evidence-based treatments of psychiatric disorders associated with various medical illnesses. The book comes with a DVD containing each chapter in pdf format, with a set of PowerPoint slides summarizing the major points of the chapter and accompanied by an interactive quiz of multiple-choice questions. The DVD likewise provides a literature database containing the studies cited, along with a search engine to allow the user to further develop his or her own database. This textbook strikes a reasonable balance between providing a comprehensive, clinically oriented reference for psychiatrists taking their fellowship training in psychosomatic medicine and providing a resource for teachers in the field as well as for those singularly involved in psychosomatic research. In addition to psychiatrists, psychologists and other allied health professionals will find this text helpful and instructive. I believe this book, along with the DVD, does accomplish its ambitious goals of reviewing current concepts in psychosomatic medicine, looking toward the future development of the subspecialty, and providing electronic tools to help both the teacher and student. I found it stimulating and enjoyable to read and believe it will provide an excellent tool for my clinical and academic practice in psychosomatic medicine."-Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)