This volume, the result of a national conference sponsored by The Nicholas and Dorothy Cummings Foundation and the University of Nevada, Reno, examines the phenomenon called medical cost offset. The specific question that interests us in this book is: Can the cost of detecting and treating patients' psychosocial problems (from subclinical problems such as stress, to mental disorders such as depression, to adjunctive problems such as treatment adherence, or finally, lifestyle issues such as poor exercise habits) be offset by decreased medical utilization in the future?
