Occupational Medicine 2020;70:689–691
BOOK REVIEWS
doi:10.1093/occmed/kqaa024
The Cambridge Handbook of Psychology,
Health and Medicine
Edited by Carrie Llewellyn, Susan Ayres, Chris McManus,
Stanton Newman, Keith Petrie,Tracey Revenson and
John Weinman. Published by Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, 3rd edition, 2019. ISBN (paperback): 978-1-316-
62587-3. Price: £75 (paperback); £160 (hardback). 690 pp.
This is an excellent reference book for health care
workers, academics and students who wish to know
more about the psychological aspects of health and
illness. There are 188 well-written chapters, of two to
six pages in length, from 270 contributors. The editors
are all psychologists.
All diseases and illnesses are associated with a psycho-
social correlate which will affect a patient’s response to
their illness. Those with an accurate perception of their
illness and an optimistic approach, who can problem
solve and regulate their emotions tend to cope better.
Those with a predisposition to anxiety or depression, an
avoidant or dependent coping style, or a lack of social
support tend to cope less well. Doctors therefore need to
be able to evaluate their patients’ psychological symptoms
in their context with a view to deciding whether they are
part of the illness, an adjustment reaction to the illness,
or part of a co-morbid illness. The book recommends
that for good quality care practitioners should align
with the patient’s goals and values, but unfortunately for
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine.
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occupational physicians who may be working to prede-
termined standards of fitness or ill-health, this may not
be possible.
There are good chapters on, for example, a multi-
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dimensional approach to health promotion; coping
with chronic illness which includes the concept of
‘post-traumatic growth’; chronic pain management with
an emphasis on encouraging psychological flexibility and
improved functioning, rather than pain relief per se. There
are also good chapters on cognitive behavioural therapy
(CBT), burnout and obesity. The latter one having
introduced me to the concepts of ‘emotional eating’ for
emotional regulation and ‘mindless eating’ where food
is unnecessary but eaten because it is readily available.
I  was interested to read that no new treatments have
emerged for chronic fatigue syndrome and that CBT
and graded exercise therapy are still the best treatments.
Expert patient programmes for the support of patients
recently diagnosed with an illness are recommended, as
is the use of social media for support from others with
a similar illness, albeit with caution. The website www.
patientslikeme.com is recommended.
As an occupational physician, I  was disappointed
to find no chapters on occupational mental illness,
post-traumatic stress disorder or workplace bullying,
despite the publicity given to the 19 workers at France
Telecom who killed themselves in 2008–09 as a conse-
quence of managerial practices which created a culture
of workplace bullying.
Some of the references are old, such as the chapter on
myasthenia gravis where more than half are over 10 years
old, to include one from 1971 which refers to how this
condition has been misdiagnosed as a conversion dis-
order. This is most unlikely in 2020.
The book is good value for money, but it could be im-
proved for the next edition by having the chapters jointly
written by a medical subject expert and a psychologist.
I should also like to see key points boxes for each chapter.
Rating
★★☆☆ (Reference only)
Jon Poole