Review by Choice Review
This immensely relevant and scholarly book eclipses its stated goal: "To provide a balanced and broad presentation of the stress-disease field." The authors identify the need for a holistic conceptual framework in light of the multifactorial, interactive, and reciprocal influences of the internal processes of organisms and their relationships to their environments. The comprehensiveness of the authors' framework is impressive: it includes factors not often associated with stress and disease, e.g., diet and environmental toxins. Scholarly critique prevails throughout discussions of the complex interrelationships among biopsychosocial, stress, and disease variables. The authors also synthesize recent stress-disease findings that point to future directions for research. Although the authors acknowledge the impossibility of including a complete literature review on stress and disease research, they incorporate more than 800 references in their sophisticated analysis. Recommended for advanced undergraduate and graduate students.-M. A. Bright, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
