Book excerpt: This book helps the primary care physician navigate the normative and non-normative psychological responses to illness, provides advice on coping and offers guidance on mental health referrals. The concise but comprehensive text emphasizes the basics, including responses to serious and potentially life-threatening illness, normal and maladaptive coping responses in medically ill individuals, and specific aspects of the illness process. Case examples illustrate the concepts discussed. Includes a chapter on psychotropic medications, and another on the special circumstances of non-compliant patients. The book concludes with discussion of family situations and offers recommendations on referring patients to a mental health provider who specializes in treating the medically ill.