Psychopharmacology Reconsidered

Psychopharmacology Reconsidered
Author: Robert Haim Belmaker
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 219
Release: 2023-10-18
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 3031403711

This thought-provoking book covers the full range of psychopharmacologic practice in textbook fashion, offering a fresh and comprehensive self-examination. Unlike conventional texts of psychopharmacology, this text speaks directly to clinicians who have started to question the limitations of psychopharmacologic claims and the rigid confines of DSM-5 diagnoses. Drawing from their clinical and research experience as well as new literature, the well-published authors provide a new perspective that encourages readers to reevaluate established practices and embrace that medication is just one component of treatment and has limits. The book could be used by psychiatric residents in their course of study, by clinical psychology students taking a psychopharmacology course, or by psychiatrists curious to get a readable but comprehensive look at new critical viewpoints in psychopharmacology that have changed since they were taught. Many neuroscience students who are looking for a review of clinical effects to guide their basic research may also find the proposed text more useful than those texts that collate clinical trials. Current texts are for specialized scientists or are part of multi-authored texts which list drugs alphabetically with no conceptual framework, or books that pretend that each biochemical drug property has a clear and known clinical result presented in cartoon style. Some lesser known texts for psychology or nursing students are not authoritative. Others aimed at patients or families are too simplistic for clinicians. The authors’ goal was to create a unified text expressing their view of psychopharmacology, its evidence base, the unity of its essential principles, and its independence of DSM or ICD diagnosis. Several new history books describe the "rise and fall" of psychopharmacology, the corruption of big pharma and the failure of large controlled clinical trials. Psychopharmacology Reconsidered: A Concise Guide Exploring the Limits of Diagnosis and Treatment ensures that young clinicians are aware of and understand this critical zeitgeist but aware also of the essential core of psychopharmacology and the evidence upon which it rests.

Psychiatry Reconsidered

Psychiatry Reconsidered
Author: H. Middleton
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2015-06-17
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1137384905

Psychiatry suffers a lot of criticism, not least from within its own scientifically founded medical world. This book provides an account of mental health difficulties and how they are generally addressed in conventional medical circles, alongside critical reviews of the assumptions underpinning them to encourage more humanitarian perspectives.

Practical Psychopharmacology

Practical Psychopharmacology
Author: Joseph F. Goldberg
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 611
Release: 2021-04-29
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1108576699

Despite the lack of guidance available for practitioners, extensive polypharmacy has become the primary method of treating patients with severe and chronic mood, anxiety, psychotic or behavioral disorders. This ground-breaking new book provides an overview of psychopharmacology knowledge and decision-making strategies, integrating findings from evidence-based trials with real-world clinical presentations. It adopts the approach and mind-set of a clinical investigator and reveals how prescribers can practice 'bespoke psychopharmacology', tailoring care to the individualized needs of patients. Practitioners at all levels of expertise will enhance their ability to devise rationale-based treatments, targeting manifestations of dysfunctional neural circuitry and dimensions of psychopathology that cut across conventional psychiatric diagnoses. Presented in a user-friendly, practical, full-colour layout and incorporating summary tables, bullet points, and illustrative case vignettes, it is an invaluable guide for all healthcare professionals prescribing psychotropic medications, including psychiatry specialists, primary care physicians, and advanced practice registered nurses.

Fundamentals of Clinical Psychopharmacology

Fundamentals of Clinical Psychopharmacology
Author: Peter Lydyard
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2015-08-18
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1498718965

Fundamentals of Clinical Psychopharmacology provides up-to-date, evidence-based and unbiased information about psychopharmacology. It spans the range of the discipline, from mode of action and side effects of drugs to meta-analyses of clinical trials. It is anchored to practice guidelines produced by the UK National Institute for Health and Care Ex

Successful Psychopharmacology: Evidence-Based Treatment Solutions for Achieving Remission

Successful Psychopharmacology: Evidence-Based Treatment Solutions for Achieving Remission
Author: Stephen V. Sobel
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2012-11-05
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0393708551

A guide for physicians and clinicians to understanding and choosing the proper psychiatric medications and for their patients who want to learn how this should be done. This book teaches mental health professionals how to choose and use psychotropic medications to address the biological etiology of psychiatric disease and mental health. It helps readers understand the key aspects of psychotherapy to deal with the psychosocial factors that prescribers need to know to use these medications within the context of the patient’s life. This book is based on the premise that all mental health—in the most symptomatic, impaired individual and in the most mentally healthy individual—is caused by a combination of biopsychosocial factors. Mental health professionals need to recognize and understand these factors and their interactions, and correct them. An understanding of all these factors, and of psychopharmacology, can lead to better treatment decisions. This book is for many readers: for psychiatrists who recognize the daily challenges in treating patients; for primary care physicians who identify psychiatric disorders in their patients; for non-medically-trained mental health professionals who want a more sophisticated understanding of psychopharmacology; and even for patients who want and need a better understanding of the medications their doctors have prescribed them.

Psychopharmacology

Psychopharmacology
Author: R. H. Ettinger
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 435
Release: 2023-06-06
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1000889823

This new, and heavily revised, edition of Psychopharmacology, provides a comprehensive scientific study of the effects of drugs on the mind and behavior. With the growing prevalence of psychiatric and behavioral disorders and the rapid advances in the development of new drug therapies, this textbook offers an essential understanding of the necessary details of drug action. The book presents its coverage in the context of the behavioral disorders they are designed to treat, rather than by traditional drug classifications, to strengthen understanding of the underlying physiology and neurochemistry, as well as the approaches to treatment. Each disorder from the major diagnostic categories is discussed from a historical context along with diagnostic criteria and descriptions of typical cases. In addition, what we presently know about the underlying pathology of each disorder is carefully described. Providing a solid foundation in psychology, neuroanatomy and physiology, the book also offers a critical examination of drug claims, as well as coverage of evidence-based alternatives to traditional drug therapies. Throughout, this text discusses how drug effectiveness is measured in both human and animal studies. Topics new to this edition include: a stronger emphasis on the environmental impacts on drug effectiveness; more on the mechanisms of adverse reactions to drugs and information on managing drug side effects; the risks and benefits of using "mood stabilizing drugs" to address behavior in youth with ADHD or ASD; and discussion of the research-to-practice gap in pharmacological care for children and adolescents. Accompanied by a robust selection of support material, this textbook is ideal for undergraduate and pre-professional students on courses in Psychopharmacology, Clinical Psychopharmacology, Drugs and Behavior. It is a valuable contribution to highlight the symbiotic relationship between psychopharmacology and the neural and behavioral sciences.

Psychopharmacology Problem Solving: Principles and Practices to Get It Right

Psychopharmacology Problem Solving: Principles and Practices to Get It Right
Author: F. Scott Kraly
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 345
Release: 2014-06-02
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 039370971X

At last, a clinician’s guidebook to prescription dilemmas. Psychotropic medications prescribed to treat mental disorders have become increasingly commonplace over the past half century, but the decision-making process for doing so continues to lack real clarity. Clinicians and patients alike face new challenges and questions thanks to the increasing availability of these drugs: When is the right time to prescribe something? Can I predict which drug will help this individual? When do I consider changing a medication? How do I assess whether a drug’s side effects make it worthwhile or not? The response to these challenging questions is not to stop medicating altogether. Psychotropic medications are useful clinical tools. But now more than ever we must consider what it means to medicate judiciously. It is time to slow down, pause, maybe even back up a bit, and reconsider how and why various drugs should be prescribed and monitored for success. The goal of this book is to encourage prudent, informed, and appropriate use of psychotropic medications—to encourage use that is respectful and aware of the strengths and limitations of these drugs. By presenting some fundamental principles of pharmacology as they apply to the clinical treatment of patients, and by offering practical, big-picture prescribing recommendations, Psychopharmacology Problem Solving helps to unravel an increasingly complex decision-making process. The first part of the book offers guidelines to keep in mind when working toward making informed choices regarding drug therapy. The second part of the book offers select examples of behavioral problems and psychological disorders—including addiction, obesity, schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, and ADHD—to illustrate how the principles or recommendations presented in Part I actually play out. The book concludes by considering the persistent problems and challenges that we face in our current and future use of psychotropic medications. Taking a hard look at the extraordinary and increasing trust clinicians, patients, and families of patients place in drug therapy for mental illness, this book gives readers an evidence-based anchor to help them make the right decisions.

The Creation of Psychopharmacology

The Creation of Psychopharmacology
Author: David Healy
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 484
Release: 2009-07
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9780674038455

David Healy follows his widely praised study, The Antidepressant Era, with an even more ambitious and dramatic story: the discovery and development of antipsychotic medication. Healy argues that the discovery of chlorpromazine (more generally known as Thorazine) is as significant in the history of medicine as the discovery of penicillin, reminding readers of the worldwide prevalence of insanity within living memory. But Healy tells not of the triumph of science but of a stream of fruitful accidents, of technological discovery leading neuroscientific research, of fierce professional competition and the backlash of the antipsychiatry movement of the 1960s. A chemical treatment was developed for one purpose, and as long as some theoretical rationale could be found, doctors administered it to the insane patients in their care to see if it would help. Sometimes it did, dramatically. Why these treatments worked, Healy argues provocatively, was, and often still is, a mystery. Nonetheless, such discoveries made and unmade academic reputations and inspired intense politicking for the Nobel Prize. Once pharmaceutical companies recognized the commercial potential of antipsychotic medications, financial as well as clinical pressures drove the development of ever more aggressively marketed medications. With verve and immense learning, Healy tells a story with surprising implications in a book that will become the leading scholarly work on its compelling subject.