IMPROVING PATIENT TREATMENT WITH ATTACHMENT THEORY. A GUIDE FOR PRIMARY CARE PRACTITIONERS AND SPECIALISTS

This book emphasizes interpersonal relationships as a frequently overlooked, yet crucial element in today’s healthcare system and describes the utility of attachment theory in understanding and managing patients with medical and surgical illness. Sections on the fundamentals of attachment theory, specific patient populations, attachment-based interventions, and future directions comprehensively reflect our current knowledge. The summarized research demonstrates the value of attachment theory in approaching such common issues as non-adherence, strain in the healthcare worker–patient relationship, and somatoform complaints, as well as in modelling maladaptive stress responses and subsequent illness vulnerability. The contributing authors are internationally recognized researchers and teachers who have sought to make this volume accessible to anyone interested in using the positive aspects of interpersonal relationships to maximum advantage in the practice of healthcare.

Table of contents (13 chapters)
1.Introduction
2.Fundamentals of Attachment Theory
3.Advanced Concepts in Attachment Theory and Their Application to Health Care
4.The Relevance of Attachment Theory in Medical Care
5.Attachment Theory and Pain
6.Adaptation to Cancer from the Perspective of Attachment Theory
7.Attachment and the End of Life Experience
8.On the Floor with C and L
9.An Integrative, Attachment-Based Approach to the Management and Treatment of Patients with Persistent Somatic Complaints
10.Attachment Style in Bariatric Surgery Care: A Case Study
11.The Psychobiology of Attachment and the Aetiology of Disease
12. ‘Tell Me What You Understand About Your Patient’: Applying Attachment Principles to Medical Education
13.Future Directions