Part I: Mechanisms -- Chapter 2 - Social Stress and Cardiovascular Disease in Primates -- Chapter 3 - Cardiovascular and Autonomic Responses to Stress -- Chapter 4 - Sympathetic Neural and Adrenal Medullary Mechanisms in Depression and Panic Disorder -- Chapter 5 - Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis and Cardiovascular Disease -- Chapter 6 – Hemostatic Effects of Stress -- Chapter 7 – Stress, Inflammation, and Coronary Heart Disease -- Chapter 8 - Brain Imaging of Stress and Cardiovascular Responses -- Part II: Acute Stress and Triggering -- Chapter 9 - Psychological Triggers for Plaque Rupture -- Chapter 10 - Stress Cardiomyopathy -- Part III: Chronic Stress -- Chapter 11 - Psychosocial Factors at Work: The Epidemiological Perspective -- Chapter 12 - Depression and Cardiovascular Disease Progression: Epidemiology, Mechanisms and Treatment -- Chapter 13 - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Emerging Risk Factor and Mechanism -- Chapter 14 - Sleep, Stress and Heart Disease -- Chapter 15 - The Causal Role of Chronic Mental Stress in the Pathogenesis of Essential Hypertension -- Chapter 16 - Metabolic Syndrome and Diabetes -- Part IV: Treatment -- Chapter 17 - Stress Management and Behavior: From Cardiac Patient to Worksite Intervention -- Chapter 18 - Exercise to Reduce Distress and Improve Cardiac Function: Moving on and finding the pace -- Part V: Treatment of Depression -- Chapter 19 - The Psychological Treatment of Cardiac Patients -- Chapter 20 - Integrating the Management of Psychosocial and Behavior Risk Factors into Clinical Medical Practice -- Part VI: Synthesis and Recommendations -- Chapter 21 – Concluding Remarks.

There is a growing trend for the incorporation of stress management into cardiac rehabilitation programs and into preventive cardiology. However, stress is multifaceted, often misunderstood, and requires as much scientific scrutiny as other pathological processes relevant to cardiology. The quality of research into stress management is variable, and care is required in identifying effective evidence-based methods. There is thus a need for better understanding of stress and its ramifications among cardiologists, other clinicians caring for cardiac patients, and by those involved in primary prevention. Stress and Cardiovascular Disease provides an up to date survey of research, highlighting the clinical implications of physiological and population studies of stress.  Each chapter addresses a particular aspect of this exciting field of basic and clinical research.  This multidisciplinary volume will serve as an aid to physicians in their management of stress-related issues in cardiac patients and high-risk individuals.