A vast amount of research linking stress and health has been done throughout the last decade in the fields of heart disease, cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome, and many other potentially stress-related illnesses. The Handbook of Stress, Medicine, and Health brings together the most distinguished authors in the world and presents the role of stress in illness and health. This exciting book sets the agenda for the new field of stress medicine. Filled with valuable practical information, this comprehensive resource investigates the health effects of life events and work. The physiological impact of critical life changes is discussed, and general occupational stress as well as the stress, from exposure on the job to HIV and AIDS are examined. The relationship between personality types, behavior patterns, and the risk of disease is explored. The guide also reviews the importance of social support during times of illness. It details how families can help alleviate or exacerbate stress. The Handbook offers guidelines for preventing and treating stress-related illnesses and includes insightful steps for coping with the stress of cancer. The Handbook of Stress, Medicine, and Health provides-under one cover-an overview of research, important information that can readily be used, plus recommendations for the direction of future study.

This book is an intellectual and personal history of Richard Lazarus, a psychologist whose pioneering research and theories in stress, coping, and emotion continue to have a worldwide influence. The author interweaves the account of his personal life and career with the developments of psychology as an academic discipline during the past five decades. His reminiscences offer glimpses of academic life, university politics, and also his growing contacts with the European and Japanese colleagues who invited him to lecture. The book concludes with his thoughts about aging, retirement, and issues of life and death.

Division TEACCH, located in the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was one of the first programs in the country to understand that autism was an organic rather than a biologic condition. We were also one of the earliest programs to recognize the enormous variability in characteristics and behaviors of children described as autistic. For these reasons, the processes of diagnosis and assessment have always been important and central to our program. We are therefore extremely pleased to have a volume representing the most current thinking of the field's leaders in these important areas. As with the preceding books in our series, Current Issues in Autism, this volume is based on one of the annual TEACCH conferences held in Chapel Hill each May. The books are not simply published proceedings of the conference papers, however. Rather, conference participants are asked to develop a full chapter around their presentations. Other international experts whose work is beyond the scope of the conference, but related to the major theme, are asked to contribute chapters as well. These volumes are designed to provide the most current knowledge in research and professional practice available on the most important issues defining and clarifying autism.

It is particularly gratifying to prepare a second edition of a book, because there is the necessary impli cation that the first edition was well received. Moreover, now an opportunity is provided to correct the problems or limitations that existed in the first edition as well as to address recent developments in the field. Thus, we are grateful to our friends, colleagues, and students, as well as to the reviewers who have expressed their approval of the first edition and who have given us valuable input on how the revision could best be structured. Perhaps the first thing that the reader will notice about the second edition is that it is more extensive than the first. The volume currently has 41 chapters, in contrast to the 31 chapters that comprised the earlier version. Chapters 3, 9, 29, and 30 of the first edition either have been dropped or were combined, whereas 14 new chapters have been added. In effect, we are gratified in being able to reflect the continued growth of behavior therapy in the 1980s. Behavior therapists have addressed an ever-increasing number of disorders and behavioral dysfunctions in an increasing range of populations. The most notable advances are taking place in such areas as cognitive approaches, geriatrics, and behavioral medicine, and also in the treatment of childhood disorders.

As a division of the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at ChapeI Hili, TEACCH has always been involved in the latest biological research on autism and related developmental disabilities. However, until now there has not been sufficient information to justify aseparate volume on this most important topic. Recent advances both in our under standing of the brain and in the technology to facilitate the measurement of neurological functioning have stimulated significant growth, which is reflected in this volume. As with the preceding books in this series, Current Issues in Autism, this volume is based on one of the annual TEACCH conferences held in ChapeI Hili each May. The books are not simply published proceedings of the conference papers, however. lnstead, conference participants are asked to develop chapters around their presentations, and other international experts whose work is beyond the scope of the conference, but related to the major theme, are asked to contribute as weil. These volumes are intended to provide the most current knowledge and professional practice available to us concerning major issues in autism.

An important component of Division TEACCH's mandate from the Department of Psychiatry of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and the North Carolina State Legislature is to conduct research aimed toward improving the understanding of developmental disabilities such as autism and to train the professionals who will be needed to work with this challenging population. An important mechanism to help meet these goals is our annual conference on topics of special importance for the understanding and treatment of autism and related disorders. As with the preceding books in this series entitled Current Issues in Autism, this most recent volume is based on one of these conferences. The books are not, however, simply published proceedings of conference papers. Instead, cer tain conference participants were asked to develop chapters around their pres entations, and other national and intemational experts whose work is beyond the scope of the conference but related to the conference theme were asked to contribute manuscripts as weil. These volumes are intended to provide the most current knowledge and professional practice available to us at this time.

Introduction and Overview: Introduction to Early Identification and Intervention in Autism; M.M. Bristol, E. Schopler. A Parent's Perspective on the Preschool Years; R. Angell. Normal Childhood Development from Birth to Five Years; R.D. Cox. Specific Aspects of Autism: Early Social Development in Autism; C. Lord. Communication in Preschool Autistic Children; B.M. Prizant, A.M. Wetherby. Behavior Management in the Preschool Years; M.E. Van Bourgondien. Diagnostic, Assessment, and Programmatic Aspects: Assessment of the Young Autistic Child; L.M. Marcus, W.L. Stone. Medical Syndromes in Young Autistic Children; L.T. Taft. Interpreting Results to Parents of Preschool Children; V. Shea. Early Intervention for Children with Autism and Related Developmental Disorders; C. Lord, et al. Current Practices in Early Intervention for Children with Autism; J.G. Olley, et al. Federal Legislation for Young Children with Disabilities; J.E. Thiele. Index.