This book describes a number of simple and effective measures for the primary prevention of selected mental, neurological and psychosocial disorders. Addressed to policy-makers as well as mental health professionals, the book aims both to increase awareness of the potential of primary prevention and to encourage the use of specific interventions. With these goals in mind, the book restricts its recommendations to measures whose effectiveness has been firmly documented in the scientific and clinical literature. Four disorders are covered: mental retardation, epilepsy, suicide, and burnout of health care staff. These were selected for inclusion on the basis of their relative frequency as well as the strength of evidence that primary prevention is both feasible and effective. The book adopts a public health approach, arguing that the multifactorial etiology of most mental and neurological disorders requires broad-based strategies involving many different sectors. Recommended lines of action range from simple procedures for lowering body temperature in feverish children through strategies involving genetic counseling and screening during pregnancy to measures at the legislative level including enforced iodization of salt to prevent cretinism and gun control or domestic gas detoxification as proven methods of suicide prevention. The book has five chapters. The first outlines the principles of primary prevention as these apply to mental, neurological, and psychosocial disorders, and summarizes the evidence supporting the effectiveness and feasibility of strategies for primary prevention. Chapter two on mental retardation, provides a guide to measures for the primary prevention of iodine deficiency, Down syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome, and phenylketonuria. Each disorders is discussed according to a common format that includes information on the size of the problem, risk factors and causes, and measures available for primary prevention. The remaining chapters provide similarly detailed advice on measures for the primary prevention of epilepsy, suicide, and burnout of professional and family caregivers.

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