Generalized anxiety disorder is a chronic, disabling, often lifelong condition affecting millions worldwide. Yet, despite its prevalence, GAD is frequently marginalized, misdiagnosed, and undertreated. Generalized Anxiety Disorder Across the Lifespan creates a practical knowledge base for GAD, identifying the symptoms that set it apart both from "normal, everyday" anxiety and from other anxiety-based pathologies, and thoroughly reviewing the range of established and cutting-edge treatments. The author's developmental approach sheds some light on longstanding clinical mysteries surrounding the disorder, among them the interplay of somatic and psychological symptoms and the changes in symptoms as patients age. Accessible to the novice or the veteran reader, the book:

• Grounds readers in the basics of GAD
• Offers extensive discussion of the current psychosocial treatments for GAD
• Examines the state of the art in pharmacological therapies with explanations of the genetic and neurobiological correlates
• Explores special issues, cultural considerations, treatment resistant patients, and prevention
• Includes guidelines for treatment of GAD in children, adolescents, adults, and older adults
• Features ready-to-use assessment tools for clients across the lifespan.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder Across the Lifespan is a rich resource for clinicians, researchers, and graduate students looking to improve patients' quality of life--and the quality of their care. It is both a guide to current best practice and a springboard for future innovations.

Michael E. Portman, DPhil, LISW-S, has worked as a full-time staff clinical social worker at the Cleveland Veteran's Administration. He provided individual and group therapy to a patient population consisting of veterans with severe mental disorders. He was also an adjunct faculty member at Case Western Reserve University, Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, and maintained a private practice specializing in the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders, especially Generalized Anxiety Disorder, for ten years. In addition to his clinical experience, Dr. Portman received a Doctorate of Philosophy in Social Work from The University of South Africa, a MSW from The Ohio State University, and a M.A. in Psychology from The New School for Social Research. He is currently setting up a private practice in Israel, where he now lives with his family.

Dr. Portman was also recently featured in an article in The Jerusalem Post. Check out an excerpt below:

"A leading US expert on CBT and its use for treating phobias, obsessions and general anxiety disorder (GAD) came on aliya from Ohio in May and settled with his wife Riva and children in Jerusalem. Dr. Michael Portman (meport18@gmail.com), a psychologist and social worker whose textbook on GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder Across the Lifespan) was published not long ago by Springer, and his article on the subject was printed in Psychiatric Annals. Both were widely praised by mental health professionals. The family thus joins his father, a retired obstetrician/gynecologist, and his mother, an artist, who moved to the capital 12 years ago. " (article by Judy Siegel-Itzkovich, November 20, 2011)

To read the entire article please copy and paste this URL address in your browser:

http: //www.jpost.com/Health/Article.aspx?id=246216