Stress and Cardiovascular Disease, 2012

The main aim of this book is to evaluate the concept of stress and provide tools for physicians to identify patients who might benefit from stress management. This will incorporate a detailed description of the physiological and pathophysiological consequences of acute and chronic stress that might lead to cardiovascular disease. The book will aim to critically evaluate interventional research (behavioural and other therapies) and provide evidence based recommendations on how to manage stress in the cardiovascular patient. Our intentions are to define and highlight stress as an etiological factor for cardiovascular disease, and to describe an evidence based "tool box" that physicians may use to identify and manage patients in whom stress may be an important contributing factor for their disease and their risk of suffering cardiovascular complications.

Part I: Mechanisms.- Chapter 2 - Social Stress and Cardiovascular Disease in Primates.- Chapter 3 - Cardiovascular and Autonomic Responses to Stress.- Chapter 4 - Sympathetic Neural and Adrenal Medullary Mechanisms in Depression and Panic Disorder.- Chapter 5 - Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis and Cardiovascular Disease.- Chapter 6 – Hemostatic Effects of Stress.- Chapter 7 – Stress, Inflammation, and Coronary Heart Disease.- Chapter 8 - Brain Imaging of Stress and Cardiovascular Responses.- Part II: Acute Stress and Triggering.- Chapter 9 - Psychological Triggers for Plaque Rupture.- Chapter 10 - Stress Cardiomyopathy.- Part III: Chronic Stress.- Chapter 11 - Psychosocial Factors at Work: The Epidemiological Perspective.- Chapter 12 - Depression and Cardiovascular Disease Progression: Epidemiology, Mechanisms and Treatment.- Chapter 13 - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Emerging Risk Factor and Mechanism.- Chapter 14 - Sleep, Stress and Heart Disease.- Chapter 15 - The Causal Role of Chronic Mental Stress in the Pathogenesis of Essential Hypertension.- Chapter 16 - Metabolic Syndrome and Diabetes.- Part IV: Treatment.- Chapter 17 - Stress Management and Behavior: From Cardiac Patient to Worksite Intervention.- Chapter 18 - Exercise to Reduce Distress and Improve Cardiac Function: Moving on and finding the pace.- Part V: Treatment of Depression.- Chapter 19 - The Psychological Treatment of Cardiac Patients.- Chapter 20 - Integrating the Management of Psychosocial and Behavior Risk Factors into Clinical Medical Practice.- Part VI: Synthesis and Recommendations.- Chapter 21 – Concluding Remarks.

Evaluates the concept of stress and provides tools to help physicians identify at risk patients

Demonstrates correlations between stress and cardiovascular disease

Critically evaluates interventional research and management strategies