Introductory Textbook of Psychiatry

The third edition of this text depicts psychiatry as a field virtually exploding with new knowledge. Its two authors present the fundamentals for practising psychiatry. The field is summarized in four sections on: background (such as history, diagnosis and neurobiology); psychiatric disorders (such as cognitive, mood, anxiety, dissociative, and personality disorders); special topics (such as violent behaviour and legal issues); and psychosocial and somatic treatments. In addition to findings about specific psychiatric disorders and new case vignettes, illustrations and tables, the authors include expanded chapters on the psychiatric aspects of AIDS, reflecting the exponential increase in knowledge about this still-unchecked world-wide epidemic, and on somatic treatments, reflecting the burgeoning knowledge about new drug treatments, particularly antidepressants. The authors have also added the Beck Depression Inventory - a self-report patient questionnaire to help the clinician obtain an objective measure of the patient's condition - to their appendix of commonly-used diagnostic scales and measurements.
They also include model curriculum recommendations for students and psychiatry clerkship directors. The text should be suitable for third- and fourth-year medical students rotating through psychiatry and for first- and second-year residents, and generally for clinicians in private practice, social workers, nursing students, physician's assistants, and laypersons interested in learning more about psychiatric illnesses.