This book seeks to develop a theoretical frameworks for the triaxial classification of illness and to devise a practical means of implementing such a classification.

The Social Determinants of Health (SDH) are defined by the World Health Organization as “the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life”. Social determinants, as well as psychosocial factors, are elements that have a significant influence on people's health and well-being. These factors include psychological, social and also cultural aspects, which can affect a person's behavior and health. These psychosocial determinants may include stress, education, poverty, social exclusion, discrimination and violence. Such factors can act as protective or, on the contrary, increase the risk of physical and mental illness and affect the quality of life of individuals.

It is generally recognized today that the United States has a need to contri bute to the improvement of health throughout the world. The need stems from the interrelationships that exist between the health of Americans and the health status of the rest of the people on "Spaceship Earth." Disease does not respect national boundaries, and the frequency of travel and trade between countries increases each year. It further relates to the opportunities found in international settings to help solve health problems more effec tively and efficiently. This includes the unique human resources that are found throughout the world as well as certain natural ecological conditions that cannot be duplicated in the United States. The United States also has a responsibility to contribute to improved health status. Our tradition of humanitarianism alone supports such a re sponsibility, but our comparative wealth of technical and financial re sources dictates a requirement to participate. Modern political realities de fine relationships between developed and developing countries that will not allow us to isolate ourselves from the compelling health needs of a majority of the world's population.

This book begins by introducing us to patients in two general-practice waiting rooms. In an Australian general practice seven patients are waiting to see doctors. In a New Zealand general-practice waiting room are two patients. The healthcare needs of each patient are outlined. Of these patients and their circumstances, the editors and specialist chapter-authors ask a series of questions. What is life like for each? How might social role, economic status, and quality of social support impact on their lived experience of illness and injury? To what extent might psychosocial variables impact on the biomedical outcome of each? How might biomedical problems impact on psychosocial variables? What might be the emotional experience of each, their perception of stress, likely resilience, and potential for achieving quality of life despite their current medical circumstances? What factors might change their emotional experience? What will influence their psychological coping? What might be the cultural and spiritual resources or needs of each? How might health practitioners and the health system more generally respond to their biopsychosocial, cultural, and spiritual needs? To what extent, and how, could presenting problems have been prevented? How can positive attitudes to health and living be promoted? To encourage health professionals to view a patient in his or her broad context, as a person, and as a person in a family, a cultural group, and in a society, with advantages to patient and clinician, Jennifer Fitzgerald and Gerard J Byrne have brought together experts in medicine, psychology, social work, pastoral theology, and social science. Following a section in which the conceptual foundations of a biopsychosocial approach to healthcare are outlined, chapters on individual differences and developmental processes, relationships, the social determinants of health, existential and ethical issues, and prevention and promotion are offered. In each chapter, to illustrate and personalise key points, authors refer to the patients in the waiting rooms.

In DSM-IV, the relationships between physical illness and psychological factors are grouped under the classifications 'Somatoform Disorders' and 'Psychological Factors Affecting Medical Conditions'(PFAMC). This volume introduces the 'Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research' (DCPR) as a new proposal for the PFAMC section of DSM-V. The DCPR approach focuses on psychological characteristics of patients presenting symptoms across different medical disorders related to the clinically relevant psychosocial constructs of abnormal illness behavior, i.e. somatization, demoralization, type A behavior, alexithymia, conversion, and irritability. The distinct DCPR categories are consistent with concepts expressed by outstanding authors in psychosomatic medicine and are therefore suggested as specifiers of PFAMC for the future DSM-V. The volume includes updates, reviews and empirical findings on psychological factors affecting various disorders in different clinical settings (endocrinology, gastroenterology, oncology, dermatology, eating disorders, consultation psychiatry). It is essential reading for psychiatrists, psychologists and physicians interested in psychosomatic medicine, and provides the basic tools for the diagnosis of DCPR conditions.

The past several decades of rapid organizational change and global economic activity beseech a fresh understanding of work conditions and mental health across all nations and regions. This volume addresses psychosocial factors at work, legislation, frameworks, research innovations and common perceptions in the Asia Pacific countries. It presents new research on psychosocial factors at work from an Asia Pacific perspective, introducing exciting new research on workaholism, bullying, work-life balance and conflict, work demands classifications, and psychosocial safety climate. Insights regarding workplace psychosocial factors, worker health and well-being have evolved mainly within North American and European cultural contexts and developed industrial countries. This state of the art account of knowledge development in the Asia Pacific region will stimulate new insights for researchers and policy makers to improve the quality of workers’ lives worldwide. "This very informative book highlights the significance and uniqueness of job stress problems encountered by workers of different countries in the Asia Pacific region. Occupational health researchers all around the world will find this book a great inspiration for future research." Yawen Cheng, ScD, Institute of Health Policy and Management, Taiwan “Initiatives and interventions reported from collaborative projects present useful hints for filling gaps in policies and practices for managing psychosocial risk factors in diverse work-life situations in the Asia Pacific region”. Dr. Kazutaka Kogi, President, International Commission of Occupational Health

This report summarizes the best available evidence for a link between psychosocial factors and cardiovascular and cancer morbidity and mortality in Europe. A total of 1822 Medline and PubMed articles published in English since January 2000 were searched, identifying 37 systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Among the psychosocial factors repeatedly identified as related to chronic diseases, in and outside work, were high job demand, low autonomy, low control or high effort-reward imbalance, interpersonal conflicts, and low social support or low trust. The evidence suggests that multiple adverse psychosocial factors are independently associated with a range of adverse chronic diseases throughout adulthood. In addition, the social gradient in health observed throughout adulthood may partly operate through psychosocial factors on the pathway between socioeconomic characteristics and health. Psychosocial factors, therefore, might become part of complex total risk-reducing interventions focusing on multiple risk factors.

In the diagnosis and treatment of physical illness, limited attention is given to psychosocial factors related to the etiology, pathogenesis, and treatment of symptoms. Over the past thirty years, however, practitioners have increasingly begun to acknowledge the importance of psychosocial factors to the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of apparently biomedical symptoms. DSM-IV alludes to psychological factors affecting a person's medical condition, and thereby infers an association between the factors and physical illness. Understanding the connection between biomedical and coexisting mental symptoms may provide new cues to a more accurate diagnosis and treatment of organic as well as mental disorders. This dissertation is an exploratory analysis of relationships between psychosocial factors and apparently biomedical illness. Patients treated in health care agencies are surveyed for their experience of treatment. Marital and family therapy is suggested as an appropriate modality in the delivery of health care. Patients may benefit from a biopsychosocial approach to treatment for many apparently general medical conditions, both acute and chronic.

While the predicted relationship between achievement conflicts and general well being was not found, a very low degree of general well being for the sample of women in the study was evident. Whether this low psychological well being is related to: (1) the personalities of women coming into the Army, (2) the environment of the particular Army post on which the study was conducted, or (3) other factors, can only be conjectured at this time. Achievement conflicts did relate to job satisfaction among the women in nontraditional units with higher achievement conflicts relating to lower job satisfaction. However, this relationship only approached significance. Also, more than two-thirds of the individual and overall samples expressed moderate to high satisfaction with the Army which leads us to speculate that Army women may have high job satisfaction in spite of the achievement conflicts they may experience in nontraditional units. But, further research will be required to delineate the exact nature of the relationship of these variables.