A Nurse’s Guide to Women’s Mental Health

Women have unique biopsychosocial factors that make them more vulnerable to mental illness. Many of these mental illnesses can elicit enormous physical, emotional, financial, and social barriers. This is books serves as a quick-access clinical guide to the range of mental health issues and diagnoses that commonly affect women across the life span. The book is divided into four sections. The first section deals with the role of cultural competence in mental health and the various types of violence such as sexual assault, rape and stalking perpetrated on women. It emphasizes key stressors specific to women that are precursors to mental illness. The second section looks at the mental disorders affecting special populations among women including girl children and adolescent females, and aged women. Disorders for other unique populations such as disabled women, lesbian and transgendered women, female veterans, women with forensic health concerns, and women who have been the object of violence are also discussed here. In the third section, chapters address childbearing issues, including menstruation-related problems, infertility and its psychological implications, and antepartum, intrapartum, and postpartum psychological disorders. The final section of the book is devoted to the discussion of the various psychiatric issues common to women: anxiety disorders; mood disorders; eating disorders; personality disorders; psychotic disorders; sleep disorders; substance abuse disorders; grief and loss; schizophrenia; and sexual dysfunction.