Environmental Illness : Myth and Reality

Title: Environmental Illness : Myth and Reality
Author: Herman Staudenmayer
ISBN: 1566703050 / 9781566703055
Format: Hard Cover
Pages: 400
Publisher: CRC Press
Year: 1999
Availability: In Stock

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Environmental illness: certain health professionals and clinical ecologists claim it impacts and inhibits 15 percent of the population. Its afflicted are led to believe environmental illness (EI) originates with food, chemicals, and other stimuli in their surroundings -as advocates call for drastic measures to remedy the situation.
What if relief proves elusive-and the patient is sent on a course of ongoing, costly and ineffective "treatment"?
Several hundred individuals who believed they were suffering from EI have been evaluated or treated by Herman Staudenmayer since the 1970s. Staudenmayer believed the symptoms harming his patients actually had psychophysiological origins-based more in fear of a hostile world than any suspected toxins contained in the environment.

Staudenmayer's years of research, clinical work-and successful care-are now summarized in Environmental Illness: Myth & Reality. Dismissing much of the information that has attempted to defend EI and its culture of victimization, Staudenmayer details the alternative diagnoses and treatments that have helped patients recognize their true conditions-and finally overcome them, often after years of prolonged suffering.

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Defines environmental illness (idiopathic environmental intolerance) in easily understood terms
Reviews the lack of scientific evidence to support toxicogenic theories
Outlines alternatives to toxicogenic explanations for symptoms attributed to low-level chemical sensitivities
Explains the symptoms of multiple chemical sensitivities from a physiological viewpoint
Addresses psychosocial influences contributing to belief of environmental illness
Discusses psychiatric diagnosis and treatment

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Foreword
Preface
The Author
Acknowledgments

Chapter 1 : What is “Environmental Illness”
Chapter 2 : Toxicogenic Theory
Chapter 3 : Unsubstantiated Diagnoses and Treatments
Chapter 4 : Studies Supporting the Psychogenic Theory
Chapter 5 : Assessment of the Toxicogenic Research Program
Chapter 6 : Psychogenic Theory
Chapter 7 : Placebo and Somatization
Chapter 8 : Learned Sensitivity
Chapter 9 : The Stress-Response
Chapter 10 : Panic Attacks and Anxiety Disorders
Chapter 11 : Trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Chapter 12 : The Limbic System and Trauma
Chapter 13 : Personality Disorders
Chapter 14 : Iatrogenic Illness : Exploitation and Harm
Chapter 15 : Treatment
Chapter 16 : Politics
Chapter 17 : Future Directions

Appendix A : A Methodology of Scientific Research Programs
Appendix B : Court Rulings Unfavorable to Environmental Illness
Glossary
References
Index