Prabha S. Chandra is a Professor of Psychiatry at the Department of Psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, India. She has served as a member of the WPA section on women's mental health and is the first person from a developing country to be elected to the executive of the Marce International Perinatal Psychiatry Society. She has also been a convener and chairperson of the Task force on women's mental health of the Indian Psychiatric Society.

Her main research contributions in the areas of women's mental health have been in perinatal psychiatry, psychosomatic obsetrics and gynecology and the role of violence in women with mental illness. Prof. Chandra has received several national awards for research in womens mental health. She has been a member of the Advisory group on HIV Behavioral Research of the Indian Council of Medical Research and has also served as a Temporary Advisor to the WHO and UNAIDS. She has about 90 publications in the above areas of research and has edited several books and training manuals.

Helen Herrman is Professor of Psychiatry at the Orygen Youth Health Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne. She is also Director, WHO Collaborating Centre in Mental Health, Melbourne; Secretary for Publications, World Psychiatric Association; and Regional Vice-President Oceania, World Federation for Mental Health.

Her interests include mental health promotion, the assessment of outcomes and quality of life for people with mental illnesses, the link between mental health and HIV infection, and the delivery of mental health services.

Jane Fisher

Deputy Director and Coordinator of International Programs, University of Melbourne, Australia.

Marianne Kastrup was Medical Director of the Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims, Copenhagen (1997-2001) and is now Head of the Centre Transcultural Psychiatry, Psychiatric. Dept. Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark. She is the Zonal Representative for the WPA and has served on various committees for both the WPA and the European Association of Psychiatry.

Unaiza Niaz is a Consultant Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist who is the Director of The Psychiatric Clinic & Stress Research Center, Karachi. She is the President & Founder Member of the Pakistan Society of Traumatic Stress Studies, a Life Member of The Pakistan Psychiatric Society, and was previously Vice President and Secretary General. She is a life member of the World Federation of Mental Health, American Psychiatric Association and a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, London. She trained at The Royal Free Hospital, the Tavistock Clinic, Hampstead, London and The Johns Hopkins University, USA. Her research interests are Stress management, Women's Issues, Medical Health Policy and Post- Graduate Education. She has numerous scientific publications in international journals and has authored several books: Emerging Images of Pakistani Women, Stress Management and The Psychosocial Profile of Pakistani Women, published by Karachi University, and a landmark Monograph on Womens Mental Health In Pakistan. She has also edited Medical Ethics in Contemporary Era and Pakistan Earthquake--International Perspectives on Handling Psycho-Trauma. Presently, she is Co-Chair of the WPA Section on Women's Mental Health and an Advisor to the National Commission on the Status of Women--Pakistan.

Marta Rondón, assistant professor at Cayetano Heredia University, is a Founder of the Peruvian Association for Women's Mental Health and was Chair of the Section of Women's Mental Health of the World Psychiatric Association. She was the first woman to be President of the Peruvian Psychiatric Association and is a recipient of the Medal of Honor of the Peruvian College of Physicians.. Formerly Director General of the Office for Older People, Ministry of Women and Social Development in Peru, she currently sits on the National Committee on Mental Health and the High Level Commission on Sexual and Reproductive Health in the Peruvian College of Physicians. Marta works at the Edgardo Rebagliati Martins Hopsital, where she supervises services for chronic psychiatric patients and sits on the hospital's committee against gender based violence.

Ahmed Okasha is Professor and Director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Training and Research in Mental Health, Institute of Psychiatry - Ain Shams University, Cairo. He is President of the Egyptian Psychiatric Association and of the Egyptian Society of Biological Psychiatry, as well as a Past President of the World Psychiatric Association. Professor Okasha is on the Editorial Advisory Board of 20 International Scientific Journals, an Honorary Fellow of The American College of Psychiatrists (2002) and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh, 1973) and of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (London, 1973).

Contemporary Topics in Women's Mental Health: Global Perspectives in a Changing Society considers both the mental health and psychiatric disorders of women in relation to global social change. The book addresses the current themes in psychiatric disorders among women: reproduction and mental health, service delivery and ethics, impact of violence, disasters and migration, women's mental health promotion and social policy, and concludes each section with a commentary discussing important themes emerging from each chapter. Psychiatrists, sociologists and students of women's studies will all benefit from this textbook.
With a Foreword by Sir Michael Marmot, Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London; Chair, Commission on Social Determinants of Health

1 Psychotic disorders and bipolar affective disorder BPAD
R. Thara and R. Padmavati
2 Depression and anxiety among women
Nadia Kadri and Khadiza Mchichi Alami
3 Somatisation and dissociation
Santosh K. Chaturvedi and Ravi Philip
4 Eating disorders
Robert L. Palmer and Dr Sarvath Abbas
5 Suicidality in women
Gergö Hadlaczky and Dannuta Wasserman
6 Alcohol and substance abuse
Florence Baingana
7 Psychiatric consequences of trauma in women
Elie G. Karam, Mariana M. Salamoun and Salim El-Sabbagh
8 Voices of consumers - women with mental illness share their experiences
Shoba Raja
9 Mental aspects of pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period
Jane Fisher, Meena Cabral de Mello and Takashi Izutsu
10 Psychological issues and reproductive health conditions: an interface
Veena A. Satyanarayana, Geetha Desai and Prabha S. Chandra
11 Menopause and women's mental health: the need for a multidimensional approach
Jill Astbury
12 Ethics in psychiatric research among women
Laura Roberts and Kristen Prentice
13 Integrating mental health into women's health and primary healthcare: the case of Chile
Graciela Rojas and Enrique Jadresic
14 Service settings for gender sensitive psychiatric care: children and adolescents
Corina Benjet
15 Gender sensitive care for adult women
Marta B. Rondon
16 Psychopharmacology
Silvana Sarabia
17 Women and disasters
Unaiza Niaz
18 Intimate partner violence interventions
Krishna Vaddiparti and Deepthi S. Varma
19 Migration and mental health in women: mental health action plan as a tool to increase communication between clinicians and policy makers
Solvig Ekblad
20 Work and women's mental health
Saida Douki
21 Globalisation and women's mental health: cutting edge information
Unaiza Niaz
22 The impact of culture on women's mental health
Marianne Kastrup and Unaiza Niaz
23 Female mutilation
Almira Seif Eldin
24 Women's mental health in the concept of broad global policies
Takashi Izutsu
25 Families of origin as agents determining women's mental health
Wenhong Cheng
26 The unpaid workload: gender discrimination in conceptualization and its impact on women's mental health
Jane Fisher
27 Foundations of human development: maternal care in the early years
Linda M. Richter and Tamsen Rochat
28 The adverse impact of psychological aggression, coercion and violence in the intimate partner relationship on women's mental health
Toshiko Kamo