I am very pleased to recommend this book by Dr Tyrer to assist the training of a wide range of professionals working in healthcare. We think we know a great deal about illness in hospitals, but we tend to forget that a large part of it has a psychological component. What surprised me after reading this book was how common health anxiety is in medical clinics. If one in five people has the condition, it must lead to a great deal of suffering. I also note with some pleasure that the modification of cognitive–behavioural therapy developed by Dr Tyrer is especially suited to nurses working in general hospitals. Nurses are in a unique position here; they understand the medical problems of the people they are caring for and, after reading this book and receiving what I hope will be further training locally, they will then be able to understand the additional problems that are a direct consequence of health anxiety. Other professionals such as psychologists and psychiatrists may be equally competent in giving this treatment, but often will not give the same level of confidence that a well-trained nurse will give in administering this therapy.

I also like the balance of theory and practice in this book. We not only need to understand the principles behind treatment, but also have a good idea of what happens in practice. The case examples described by Dr Tyrer ring true and I am sure they will be of great value to practitioners when they are trying to disentangle psychological from physical problems in the patients that they see. I also hope that this book adds to the growing understanding that when patients present to any part of the National Health Service they should receive a full assessment of both their psychological and physical status; for rather too long, the psychological aspects have been ignored.