Clinical Handbook of Psychotropic Drugs

Military Medicine, Oct 2003 by Koshes, Ronald J

Clinical Handbook of Psychotropic Drugs K.Z. Bezchlibnyk-Butler J.J. Jeffries Hogrefe & Huber, Publishers

Another handbook on psychopharmacology? The editors of this 13th revised edition of the Clinical handbook of Psychotropic Drugs provide a comprehensive, easily readable, and clinically useful perspective on drugs many of us employ in our daily practices. Many texts sacrifice clinical utility in the service of exhaustive detail in that so much information is presented that it is almost impossible to extract the utility of the data presented. These editors have struck a good balance between necessary facts and clinical relevance; you will want this book in your library.

An important feature of this handbook is the layout of the text. It is horizontally arranged so that more information is available on the page and the continuation of columns and categories is easy to read. The information on each medication and its use is current and class effects of drugs as well as pertinent side-effects are highlighted for easy reference. Added extras include a glossary, a bibliography and patient information samples for each drug.

Unique also to this text are the sections on electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), and herbal and "natural products." These sections do an excellent job in keeping the student and prescriber current on what other techniques are available to patients, and what our patients may be using before they come to us! That is not something usually seen in a textbook on psychopharmacology.

The editors take seriously the concept of clinical relevance because there are chapters on the treatment of specific conditions (substance abuse, cognition, hyperactivity). I was happy to see a section on methadone treatment for opiate addiction, not something usually taught. In "New Unapproved Treatments of Psychiatric Disorders," the editors elaborate for example on how the beta blockers can be used for antisocial behaviors and aggression.

When you open to any of the pages in the text, you might feel like you have stepped into the PDR because there seems to be so much density of information. Closer examination reveals a text more like the Cliff Notes for psychopharmacology in conciseness and the Washington Manual in clinical usefulness. Teachers will want to use this text and practitioners to want to consult it to review how these medications can be safely and effectively utilized.

Ronald J. Koshes, M.D.

Washington, DC