International Handbook of Cognitive and Behavioural Treatments for Psychological Disorders Edited by V. E. Caballo. Oxford: Pergamon. 1998. 698 pp.US$60.00 (hb). ISBN 0 08 043433 9

This book introduces techniques of cognitive and behavioural treatment for specific categories of mental disorder. Over one-third of it is given to anxiety disorders, while depression and schizophrenia each have several chapters. Single chapters consider circumscribed problems such as hypochondriasis and sexual dysfunction, and people with special needs (‘mental retardation’ and behaviours associated with dementia). Although the book claims to follow the DSM-IV classification of mental disorders, major gaps exist. Body dysmorphic disorder receives detailed consideration, but all the eating disorders are ignored. Problem gambling and impulse control disorders (those “not elsewhere classified”) each have chapters, but substance misuse is mentioned only in a chapter on schizophrenia. Forensic issues are raised in an excellent chapter on the paraphilias, but there is no attempt to discuss cognitive treatments of any of the personality disorders recognised by DSM-IV. Psychological disorders do not include somatisation disorder or chronic pain. Apart from brief consideration of adolescent depression, the use of behavioural and cognitive treatments with children does not feature.

All chapters provide information about treatment techniques. This tends to be much more detailed and practical when the focus is relatively narrow (agoraphobia, gambling, hypochondriasis). Behavioural treatments are well represented, with a particularly good review of behavioural treatments for depression from Lewinsohn et al. While there are no detailed descriptions of behaviour modification techniques, the importance of milieu to psychoeducation is recognised, and group and family treatments are included. The extent to which chapters succeed in providing a critical evaluation of the relative merits of different treatment techniques is variable: despite its practical merits, the book is not a consistent guide to evidence on efficacy. ‘International’ here indicates that the contributors are from North America, Spain, the UK and Germany, and references are rarely obscure or inappropriate. The book is substantially bound, with many helpful diagrams and examples of tools used in treatment.

Reservations aside, the chapters give trainees an idea of what most cognitive and behavioural treatments involve, and the volume should find a place alongside its competitors in larger departmental libraries.