Psychological distress: Risk factors, patterns and coping strategies

Psychological distress has become a very relevant and highly debated topic as a result of the increasing volume of information available. In fact, in the last decades, more and more research has been conducted in order to provide unique knowledge and shed new light on this important and sensible malady. In a complex and variegated panorama of scientific research, this book is intended to clarify the most significant questions and to deepen the greater contents about psychological distress, analyzing its various aspects and focusing attentively on them. Different facets will be addressed in order to accomplish this goal. Among them, personality characteristics that lead to vulnerability, psychological distress, and psychological patterns of acute stress response will be discussed in two different chapters in order to define the subject in a more general way. On the other hand, the remaining chapters will treat more specific issues considered pivotal in several areas of psychological distress. In particular, the aspects concerning psychological distress in sport athletes, cancer patients, posttraumatic stress disorder cases, adolescents, cardiac diseases and autistic children and their siblings will be expertly discussed. Furthermore, this entire book is dedicated to investigate the issues relative to coping styles and strategies, distress assessment, and therapies or interventions able to improve the quality of life while also minimizing risk factors.