Mental Health Issues and the University Student

by Doris Iarovici MD

Overview

Case-based intervention strategies for mental health professionals working with college and university students.

Young adults enter college with many challenges—complicated family dynamics, identity issues, and extreme pressure to succeed, among others. Students may also have mental health difficulties, ranging from adjustment disorders to mood disorders, and growing numbers of them are seeking help on campus.

But these students are also resilient and eager to learn, stepping onto campus with hope for a new and better phase of life. Doris Iarovici, a psychiatrist at Duke University Counseling and Psychological Services, sees in college and university mental health services an opportunity for mental health professionals to bring about positive change with young people during a crucial period of their development.

Dr. Iarovici describes the current college mental health crisis and narrates how college mental health services have evolved along with changes in student populations. She discusses students’ lifestyle problems and psychiatric concerns, using case vignettes to explore a variety of interventions. Included are discussions of substance abuse, relationship difficulties, eating disorders, depression and anxiety, and culture clashes. Problems uniquely addressed in this book include sleep disturbances and perfectionism. An essential component of the volume is a guide to making emergency assessments, from risk classification and hospitalization to public safety and communication within and outside the campus community.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421412382
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	03/01/2014
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Doris Iarovici, MD, provides psychiatric care to college students at Harvard University’s Counseling and Mental Health Services. She was previously a psychiatrist at Duke University, in private practice, and at a residential eating disorders treatment program. Her essays about college mental health have appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, Psychiatric Times, and elsewhere.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures ix

Part I The Student in Context: The Interdependent Campus

1 Crisis on the College Campus? 3

2 The Changing Face of the American University Student 8

3 Generational Issues on Campus 13

4 The Psychiatrist's Role in College Mental Health 22

Part II Clinical Challenges

5 Sleep Problems on Campus 31

6 Alcohol on Campus 44

7 Non-alcohol Substance Abuse on Campus 54

8 Loneliness and Relationships on Campus 62

9 Perfectionism 71

10 Clash of Cultures: International Students 78

11 Clash of Cultures: LGBT Students 86

12 Disordered Eating 98

13 Difficulty Concentrating 115

14 Anxiety 126

15 Depression and Other Mood Problems 140

16 Psychotic Symptoms 152

17 Emergency Situations on Campus 163

18 Impulse Control Problems, Behavioral Addictions, and Other Problematic Behaviors 177

19 The Nontraditional Student 187

20 Models of Treatment 197

21 Treatment Challenges in the University Population 205

Epilogue: Student Emotional Well-Being: Looking toward the Future 217

Notes 221

Index 241

What People are Saying About This

Jerald Kay

This timely and exceptionally well-written book comprehensively addresses the social issues and clinical challenges faced by college mental health professionals and includes such outstanding features as clinical vignettes, guidelines, best practices, and DSM-5 nosology. This volume should be required reading for all clinicians in college mental health and is indispensable for those teaching and supervising psychiatry residents, graduate psychology, and social work students within the student mental health setting.

Victor Schwartz

With the publication of Mental Health Issues and the University Student, Doris Iarovici emerges as a leading voice in college psychiatry. This text is a lovely combination of current and extensive clinical wisdom. It is well organized and very readable and will be of great value to psychiatrists working in or with university students.

From the Publisher

With the publication of Mental Health Issues and the University Student, Doris Iarovici emerges as a leading voice in college psychiatry. This text is a lovely combination of current and extensive clinical wisdom. It is well organized and very readable and will be of great value to psychiatrists working in or with university students.
—Victor Schwartz, Medical Director, The Jed Foundation, co-editor of Mental Health Care in the College Community

This timely and exceptionally well-written book comprehensively addresses the social issues and clinical challenges faced by college mental health professionals and includes such outstanding features as clinical vignettes, guidelines, best practices, and DSM-5 nosology. This volume should be required reading for all clinicians in college mental health and is indispensable for those teaching and supervising psychiatry residents, graduate psychology, and social work students within the student mental health setting.
—Jerald Kay, M.D., past Chair, American Psychiatric Association Committee and Caucus on College Mental Health, co-editor of Mental Health Care in the College Community

Editorial Reviews

Iarovici navigates a passage between the science of diagnosis and the art of treatment. In doing so, she demonstrates an appreciation for the subtle nuances that affect the treatment of individuals poised on the cusp of adulthood.

PsycCRITIQUES - Joseph J. Guido

The particular strength of this book is the careful description of how these issues and problems manifest themselves in a higher education setting and the opportunities and challenges of addressing them in this setting.

Choice

Iarovici navigates a passage between the science of diagnosis and the art of treatment. In doing so, she demonstrates an appreciation for the subtle nuances that affect the treatment of individuals poised on the cusp of adulthood.
—Joseph J. Guido, PsycCRITIQUES

I embarked on the reading of this book with great interest and was rewarded by the author's thoughtful analysis. . . a terrific texbook for psychiatric residents. . . very informative for university administrators in charge of program planning.
—Brunhild Kring, American Journal of Psychiatry

The particular strength of this book is the careful description of how these issues and problems manifest themselves in a higher education setting and the opportunities and challenges of addressing them in this setting.
—Choice

I can picture myself in the middle of a complicated case reaching for this guide
—Suzanne Sorrentino, LCSW, Journal of College Student Psychotherapy

From the Publisher

I can picture myself in the middle of a complicated case reaching for this guide

Journal of College Student Psychotherapy - Suzanne Sorrentino

I embarked on the reading of this book with great interest and was rewarded by the author's thoughtful analysis. . . a terrific texbook for psychiatric residents. . . very informative for university administrators in charge of program planning.

American Journal of Psychiatry - Brunhild Kring