Handbook of emotional disorders in later life: Assessment and treatment. edited by Ken Laidlaw and Bob Knight. Oxford university press, Oxford, 2008. Pages: 472
✍ Scribed by R. C. Baldwin
- Book ID
- 102229248
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2009
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 33 KB
- Volume
- 24
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0885-6230
- DOI
- 10.1002/gps.2159
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Syndrome'. They succeed in summarising a large amount of medical data for any healthcare professional with an interest in GWS.
The chapter on the 'Combat Stress' Society describes this worthy charity's work, but as this book is not aimed at patients it feels incongruous.
All the above clarify what GWS isn't, and it is left to Susie Kilshaw, an anthropologist, to try and explain what it is. She explores the interplay of socio-cultural factors that mediate the experiences patients with GWS have had. This is the stand-out section of the book, reflecting on the intrinsic roles of the media, and changing illness beliefs across society, in the construction of the 'syndrome'.
We continue to see the power of the media in 'medicalisation' which Kilshaw alludes to. While the editors may be right in a scientific sense that 'further research into the aetiology of Gulf War illness will prove fruitless', it would be a missed opportunity if its true origins were unexplored.