Rhonda Brown - Comorbidity: Symptoms, Conditions, Behavior and Treatments

Cover illustration: Gregory Davies/Stockimo/Alamy Stock Photo

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG

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Collectively, as co-authors, we have extensive clinical and research experience related to the various clinical disorders, symptoms, behaviour and biology covered in the book. Furthermore, as research collaborators, we can provide a unique perspective on the likely evolution and nature of disease comorbidity, which integrates biological, medical and psychological perspectives. The book was written with an academic audience in mind, although other interested individuals may appreciate the exploration of possible mechanisms underpinning disease comorbidity. To be clear, this isnota self-help book that reflects upon the way in which people should live a better life or which reflects upon the way that we as individuals live our own lives.

The stimulus for the book was research conducted by Laird Birmingham, Rhonda Brown and others, related to low body temperature and infection in anorexia nervosa patients, which later gave rise to discussions around the possible role played by body temperature in mediating some of the adverse health outcomes related to overweight/obesity. However, more broadly, the co-authors have worked collectively, in several different research groups, to answer the following questions related to disease comorbidity: What is causing the comorbidity between different medical and psychological conditions? What role (if any) is played by the shared (or overlapping) medical and psychological symptoms? Or is a common factor more likely to cause the co-occurrences? Finally, why is a similar profile of risk factors detected for a range of different but frequently comorbid illnesses and conditions?

As argued in this book, there is a crucial need to more fully integrate a broader range of comorbid illnesses and conditions, and their often overlapping risk factors, into the same disease models; to arrive at a more complex real-world understanding of comorbid illness causation. If such a clinical model could be developed, it might be used to test complex hypotheses related to the evolution and nature of disease comorbidity as well as evaluate potential new therapies.

Finally, as co-authors, we wish to thank the various researchers and clinicians we have worked with over many years, who each have contributed to the evolution of the thoughts that are collectively advanced in this book.