Menopause: A Mental Health Practitioner’s Guide (PDF)

by Donna E. Stewart

Organized for ease of use by today’s busy mental health clinicians, Menopause: A Mental Health Practitioner’s Guide describes the latest knowledge and clinical recommendations associated with menopause in a single, concise guide that is clearly written and comprehensive in scope.

Menopause is about change — but it is also a normal life stage traversed by most women with little or no difficulty. Not all women have symptoms as they transition to menopause, and women with symptoms experience them in different combinations and levels of intensity.

The management of perimenopause and menopause is also rapidly changing. The past 5 years have seen truly dramatic changes in our scientific knowledge of and medical recommendations for perimenopause and menopause. For example, until recently, hormone replacement therapy was highly advocated as an essential aspect of care for women in perimenopause and menopause.

Even the definitions used to describe the different time periods and stages associated with natural (i.e., nonsurgical) menopause have changed over time and can be confusing. Thus, Menopause: A Mental Health Practitioner’s Guide uses the 1994 World Health Organization Scientific Group on Research in the Menopause terminology, augmented by more recent refinements made by the Stages of Reproductive Aging Workshop.

The essential Menopause: A Mental Health Practitioner’s Guide sheds light on the complexity and constant change integral to the study and treatment of menopause, bringing together the current work of 14 internationally recognized menopause experts in psychiatry, neuroscience, gynecology, and internal medicine. After an introductory chapter sets the contexts of midlife in women, subsequent chapters in Menopause: A Mental Health Practitioner’s Guide cover the following topics: • The basic physiology of the menopausal transition and menopause.• The effects of gonadal hormones on the central nervous system, and in particular, depression, anxiety, and irritability during the menopausal transition and midlife.• New research findings and clinical advice about the effect of gonadal hormones and menopause on psychotic illness in women.• An examination of the medical aspects of and the gynecologic aspects of perimenopause and menopause.• A look beyond menopause to the psychopathology and psychotherapy of older women in various cultures.

The timely information contained in Menopause: A Mental Health Practitioner’s Guide will help mental health professionals to formulate current, best understanding and treatment for the psychological problems that some women experience as they traverse perimenopause and menopause.