Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- List of contributors
- 1 Introduction
- Part one At-risk groups
- 2 Primary prevention of childhood mental health problems
- 3 Primary prevention: assessing the relevance of life-events and difficulties among primary care attenders
- 4 The prevention of postnatal depression
- 5 Bereavement
- 6 Preventing mental illness amongst people of ethnic minorities
- 7 The prevention of mental illness in people with learning disability
- 8 The role of counselling in primary prevention
- Part two Early detection in primary care
- Part three Limiting disability and preventing relapse
- Index
3 - Primary prevention: assessing the relevance of life-events and difficulties among primary care attenders
from Part one - At-risk groups
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- List of contributors
- 1 Introduction
- Part one At-risk groups
- 2 Primary prevention of childhood mental health problems
- 3 Primary prevention: assessing the relevance of life-events and difficulties among primary care attenders
- 4 The prevention of postnatal depression
- 5 Bereavement
- 6 Preventing mental illness amongst people of ethnic minorities
- 7 The prevention of mental illness in people with learning disability
- 8 The role of counselling in primary prevention
- Part two Early detection in primary care
- Part three Limiting disability and preventing relapse
- Index
Summary
Introduction
While the notion of stress-related disease dates back to classical times, it is only in the last two decades that research into the role of life events has been systematic enough to inform general medical practice. Alongside these improvements in the study of environmental stressors, there has been increasing sophistication in the understanding of the impact of psychosocial factors in general upon health and illness. In parallel, work in neuropsychopharmacology has thrown up wide-ranging hypotheses, which have allowed the elaboration of integrated biopsy chosocial models with compelling implications for preventive interventions.
In a brief chapter of this kind, it is clearly impossible to do justice to all these developments, and the focus of this contribution has had to be restricted accordingly. The theme selected highlights the personal meaning of adverse life events and ways in which this might be explored by a person's doctor and other health care professionals. This theme will be developed by describing in some detail the work of one particular research tradition.
Life events, difficulties and meaning
The studies to be discussed here were undertaken during the last 25 years in London, by the Royal Holloway and Bedford College Medical Research Council research team, both in general population and in psychiatric patient samples. Their original purpose was to investigate the psychosocial aetiology of mental disturbance, although the study of the course of illness and recovery also became possible later.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Prevention of Mental Illness in Primary Care , pp. 41 - 56Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996