* Summarizes the clinical issues and mental health problems in women, bringing a unique and balanced understanding of different aspects of gender and mental health

* Exceptionally broad in scope, covering a wide range of mental health issues facing women today

* Include chapters by leading experts in their respective fields, providing the most authoritative information available

Gender and mental health is a growing field in psychiatry and in the last three to four decades, many different aspects of women's mental health have bloomed. Researchers have gained a better understanding of the psychological, social, and cultural aspects of mental health problems in women, and it is possible to describe, classify, and circumscribe different diagnoses as they appear in the female gender. Epidemiological data has also shown an increased frequency in different clinical aspects of many psychiatric disorders.

In addition, research into areas including eating disorders, perinatal, psychiatric disorders, and the long term effects of abuse have helped us to appreciate the societal, parental, and personal consequences of mental health problems.

The Oxford Textbook of Women and Mental Health is dedicated to fundamental aspects in women's mental health. Part one of the text covers topics from women's health as a global issue to different medical psychological theories, giving an overview of the role of gender in mental health. The second part of the book examines clinical aspects of women and mental health. In part three, special clinical topics such as PTSD, self-harm, menopause, violence and its management are investigated. Part four of the text focuses on parental psychiatric disorders, clarifying how mental health and behavioural problems in children can be a marker or consequence of maternal distress. The final two parts look at the topics of women and disability, and legislation and policy.

A book of exceptional scope and depth, it will be essential for all those health professionals involved in managing mental health problems in women.

Professor John Cox: Foreword

Fundamental Aspects: Women and Mental Health
1. Professor Levent Kuey: 1. Stigma, women and mental health;
2. Dr Neerja Chowdhary: Gender-based violence and mental health
3. Professor David Pilgrim: 3. Mind the Gender Gap: Mental Health in a post-Feminist context
4. Dr M Nasser: Women, ethnicity and mental healt
3. Professor David Pilgrim: 1. The Gender Gap in Mental Health: Some competing hypothesis
4. Dr M Nasser: Women, ethnicity and mental health
5. Dr Peter Fitzgerald: Biological sex differences relevant to mental health
6. Dr Ronald Doctor: Lesbianism and mental health
7. Dr R Doctor: Attachment and women's mental health
8. Nora McClelland: Maternal Mental Health: an ethical base for good practice
9. Dr Irene Cormac: Women as Carers

Clinical Aspects of mental illness in women
10. Dr Jim Lucey: Anxiety Disorders in Women
11. Dr Jona Lewin: Depression in women
12. Prof essorA Riecher: Schizophrenia in Women
13. Dr Sarah Majid: Women with borderline personality Disorder: Aetiology, Assessment and Prognosis
14. Dr Sarah Majid: Borderline Personality Disorder in Women: Treatment Approaches
15. Dr Lisa Wootton: Women in forensic institutions
16. Dr Adil Akram: The social care needs of women with mental illness

Perinatal Psychiatric Disorders
17. Dr J Lewin: Perinatal psychiatric disorders
18. Nora Turjanski: Postnatal depression; Assessment, Treatment, Prognosis, Management (Role of health visitors, GP, family, EPDS)
19. Dr Ian Jones: Puerperal psychosis
20. Dr Giles Berrisford: Obstetric Liaison services
21. Dr Trevor Friedman: Psychiatric Mother and Baby Units

Women and Substance Abuse
22. Dr John Roche: Women and Alcohol
23. Dr E Day: Women and Drugs
Eating disorders
24. Dr M Nasser: The socio-cultural and personal dimension of eating disorders
25. Dr R Palmer: Eating disorders: Recognition, Pathogenesis and phenomenology, classification Management and services for women with eating disorders

Special Clinical Topics
26. Dr Jo Stubley: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
27. Dr Judith Horrocks: Self harm and suicide in women
28. Professor Vedat Sar: Medically unexplained symptoms in Women
Parental Psychiatric disorders
29. Professor V Glover: Maternal stress, anxiety and depression during pregnancy: Effects on the fetus and the child
30. Professor Antonia Bifulco: Depressed Mothers and their Children: Attachment Issues
31. P Moran: Women, Neglect and Abuse and the Consequences

Women and Learning Disability
32. Dr McCarthy: Women with intellectual disability and mental health problems: the invisible victims
33. Dr Alaa Al-Sheikh & Dr Dimitrios Paschos: Affective disorders in women with intellectual disabilities
34. Professor Greg O'Brien: Psychopharmacology in Women with Learning Disabilities
Legislation and policy
35. Professor Karen Newbigging: Building on or Building in? The contribution of policy and the law to women's mental health
36. Professor Mary Seeman: Afterword