Know any good psychiatry books (or articles)? *(Combined Sticky)*

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What are everyone's thoughts on the schatzberg clinical psychopharmacology book? I'm trying to decide Schatzberg or Stahl?
Any thoughts appreciated
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aesop said:
What are everyone's thoughts on the schatzberg clinical psychopharmacology book? I'm trying to decide Schatzberg or Stahl?
Any thoughts appreciated
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I like the visual approach of Stahl. It is also the one most frequently mentioned on this board - and conveniently for me, it is on the MRCPsych reading list.
 
BabyPsychDoc said:
I like the visual approach of Stahl. It is also the one most frequently mentioned on this board - and conveniently for me, it is on the MRCPsych reading list.
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My only problem with Stahl is that he tends to overstate what is known about clinical effects of individual receptor populations. His data isn't wrong (that I know of), but we don't really know as much about how in vitro data translates to treatment decisions. Reading Stahl, you can come away thinking "blocking this receptor has this effect on depressed patients," or "patients with this kind of depression need increased activity of exactly this kind of receptor, so they obviously need this antidepressant more than that one."
We just don't know those details yet. We don't yet know enough to be able to predict which medication naive patients will respond to which antidepressants. And we certainly don't know "patients like this need a little of this antidepressant and a little of this one," which are the kinds of things I sometimes hear from Stahl devotees.
 
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kugel said:
My only problem with Stahl is that he tends to overstate what is known about clinical effects of individual receptor populations. His data isn't wrong (that I know of), but we don't really know as much about how in vitro data translates to treatment decisions. Reading Stahl, you can come away thinking "blocking this receptor has this effect on depressed patients," or "patients with this kind of depression need increased activity of exactly this kind of receptor, so they obviously need this antidepressant more than that one."
We just don't know those details yet. We don't yet know enough to be able to predict which medication naive patients will respond to which antidepressants. And we certainly don't know "patients like this need a little of this antidepressant and a little of this one," which are the kinds of things I sometimes hear from Stahl devotees.
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I agree with what you are saying. I think many psychiatrists yearn for some degree of certainty in making clinical decisions - sort of certainty that IM docs have in, say, electrolyte adjustment decisions. What you have observed is, I think, to a certain extent the result of such yearning, based on overinterpretation of available data.
 
What do people think about Stahl's explanation of clozapine's inferior D2 blocking capabilities in vitro--that it has to do with the weakness of the radioligand? I am wondering if anyone has read that part of Stahl (and the paper he cites) and know enough about radioligand binding experiments to say for sure whether that's a legitimate explanation...because most texts I read say that clozapine's D2 blocking capabilities are demonstrably inferior and mention nothing about the necessity of trying different D2 binding radioligands in comparing antipsychotics.

Anyway, here's for some history of DSM--the Feighner paper and the RDC paper--with an introduction to each. Hopefully this hasn't been posted yet!!! :)

http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/classics1989/A1989AU44300001.pdf
http://scalesandmeasures.net/files/files/Feighner_JP_1972.pdf

http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/classics1989/A1989U309700001.pdf
http://www.nd.edu/~ghaeffel/Spitzeretal(1978).PDF
 
Has anyone read any good (comprehensive) books on the history of psychiatry/psychology, that would reintroduce me to the important psychiatric theories (Freud, Jung, etc)? I really haven't studied this stuff in depth since college, since medical school doesn't spend much time reviewing it (or any time at all...).
 
Can anyone recommend a good neuroscience/neuroanatomy book that emphasizes neural circuits and cognitive science? Hopefully something that is conceptual and "easy" to read...

Thanks!
 
maranatha said:
Can anyone recommend a good neuroscience/neuroanatomy book that emphasizes neural circuits and cognitive science? Hopefully something that is conceptual and "easy" to read...

Thanks!
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This is the book I use to teach our residency didactic on Neuroscience for Mental Health Clinicians. It may not be as deep as you'd like, but is very readable, reasonably up to date, and at the right "level" of inquiry, I think.

For more depth, I supplement with this--lots of pretty pictures.
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/m...gewanted=1&#39&#59&sq=depression&st=cse&#59;s upside&scp=1

"Like a fever that helps the immune system fight off infection — increased body temperature sends white blood cells into overdrive — depression might be an unpleasant yet adaptive response to affliction. Maybe Darwin was right. We suffer — we suffer terribly — but we don't suffer in vain."

Read the rest!
 
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animas said:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/m...gewanted=1&#39&#59&sq=depression&st=cse&#59;s upside&scp=1

"Like a fever that helps the immune system fight off infection — increased body temperature sends white blood cells into overdrive — depression might be an unpleasant yet adaptive response to affliction. Maybe Darwin was right. We suffer — we suffer terribly — but we don’t suffer in vain."

Read the rest!
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Puh-leeease! "Subjects perform better when distracted from their depression"? "Ruminations lead to improved outcomes"? "Depression confers evolutionary advantage"?

Can negative life events make you a better person? Heck, YES! - if you find enough strength, courage and wisdom to learn the lessons without succumbing to depression. But does a depression make you a better person? Yeaahh....

The guy doesn't know what he is writing about. I have not read the entire article, but the two pages I have read made me sick.
 
BabyPsychDoc said:
But does a depression make you a better person? Yeaahh....
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Maybe not a better person, but perhaps a better artist.
hemingway.jpg


vincent_van_gogh_16.jpg


:D
 
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Hi

I'm doing a high school project on electroconvulsive therapy and how its use has changed.
I was wondering if someone could recommend some useful books to help me with the project. Also, if you knows of any fiction books which has significant reference to ECT then that would also be of great interest to me.

Thanks
 
cr312 said:
Hi

I'm doing a high school project on electroconvulsive therapy and how its use has changed.
I was wondering if someone could recommend some useful books to help me with the project. Also, if you knows of any fiction books which has significant reference to ECT then that would also be of great interest to me.

Thanks
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Kaplan and Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry has some good information on ECT, including a historical timeline.

Dunno if you can access this or not, but uptodate.com is also a good source.
 
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cr312 said:
Hi

I'm doing a high school project on electroconvulsive therapy and how its use has changed.
I was wondering if someone could recommend some useful books to help me with the project. Also, if you knows of any fiction books which has significant reference to ECT then that would also be of great interest to me.

Thanks
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Shorter and Healy - "Shock Therapy". Excellent review of history of ECT, although may be a bit deeper than you want to go.
P.S. just noticed the date on the post - prob too late for my advice...
 
what is the latest and most comprehensive book on schizophrenia? I'm interested in biological and psychological approaches (cognitive, psychodynamic, etc).
 
MDhasbeen said:
yes, i used it. i liked it. did a longer review of it in another thread (one of the stickies).
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Oh...That would have been an obvious place for me to look first...:oops:.
 
If you ever saw those small pocket books on Psychiatry and Psychiatric Drugs, the first one just got published as an iPhone ap called Psychiatry On Call. Looks like pretty much the same content which really covers the basics pretty well. Great way to have the info easily available.
 
I often get asked how to get started learning about hypnosis. Here's some recommended books. These are especially focused on physician use, and not necessarily for psychotherapy.

Hypnotherapy - by Dave Elman
Considered a classic, from the 1950's, a little outdated in theories and approaches but a good intro

Hypnosis: The Application of Ideomotor Techniques - by David Cheek, MD
Written by an Ob/Gyn, this touches on techniques useful especially in the medical field, including controversial areas such as mother-fetal communication for turning a breach baby. Never had the chance to try such techniques out, but ideomotor techniques in general are good to learn. Out of print.

Trance and Treatment - By Spiegel and Spiegel
Probably THE textbook for psychiatrists on hypnosis, covering the science, the theory, and even some of the execution of it. The father and son, both world renowned psychiatrists at Columbia and Stanford, respectively, wrote this tome.

Essentials of Clinical Hypnosis: An Evidence-Based Approach
- by Steven Jay Lynn, PhD and Irving Kirsch, PhD
A fine intro book on hypnosis, and understanding it especially in its historical context. Published by American Psychological Association.

Transformational Psychotherapy - by Arthur Phillips, MD
Written by one of my mentors, a ne'er read little pearl written in 1981 that furthers a lot of work from the humanistic, Erickson, and NLP traditions. Out of print.
 
I'm splashing in the kid pool still, but surprised no one has mentioned Eric Berne and his books The Games People Play and What do you say after you say Hello?. I liked that they aren't totally sterile analysis and that he adds in some humor occasionally. I laughed out loud in several chapters. I know they may be a bit outdated being written ~1960 or earlier, i don't recall a single mention of anti depressants.

Oh, and they are about transactional and script analysis.
 
Was hoping for some advice on ethics in psychiatry books/articles.

I have been reading "Ethics of Psychiatry" - a collection of articles and essays edited by Rem B. Edwards (good framing of the issues but not up to date). Saw some posts about Daniel Carlat, so I just ordered "Unhinged." Read Elyn Saks' "The Center Cannot Hold" and many of her articles on capacity.

This is probably something best done by continuing to find articles through PubMed but I am really looking for anything that people think is a "must read" that I just haven't come across yet.
 
I dont know if these is the right thread but I just wanted to say hey and thanks, there's tons of info here, so hey and thanks...See you round the boards...
 
Does anyone have a recommendation for a good beginning psychotherapy book? We start carrying therapy patients in PGY-2, which is approaching fast and I was hoping for a helpful start. Thanks
 
I am entering my 4th year of medical school and will be doing CL psych away rotation next month. What textbook do you recommend I use to prepare for this elective?
 
TheWowEffect said:
I think circadian rhythms are a vastly underexplored area with respect to bipolar disorder. There is a lot of research related to this dating back to 1980s. It is well established through studies in the last few years that Lithium's mechanism of action in bipolar disorder involves affecting the CLOCK gene, which is invloved in circadian rhythms. This is a fact that many psychiatrists either don't know or don't care to know. Be ready for much more research on this in the near future.
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I did my Neurophysiology project on the Neurobiology of Bipolar Disorder and this was a huge focal area. I can't wait for this issue to be further unraveled.
 
GmailQueen said:
Has anyone read any good (comprehensive) books on the history of psychiatry/psychology, that would reintroduce me to the important psychiatric theories (Freud, Jung, etc)? I really haven't studied this stuff in depth since college, since medical school doesn't spend much time reviewing it (or any time at all...).
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Madness: A Brief History by Roy Porter

A History of Psychiatry: from the Era of the Asylum to the Age of Prozac by Edward Shorter
 
maranatha said:
Can anyone recommend a good neuroscience/neuroanatomy book that emphasizes neural circuits and cognitive science? Hopefully something that is conceptual and "easy" to read...

Thanks!
Click to expand...

There's also Michael Gazzaniga's two books, Cognitive Neuroscience: The Biology of the Mind and The Cognitive Neurosciences. Those are more textbook-y but he does have many many other easy to read books that cover more specific areas of cognitive neuroscience. He's really a great writer : )
 
^I agree, thats my favorite Yalom book.

On a similar note I'd add:

The Art of Psychotherapy by Anthony Storr, Man's Search for Meaning - Frankl and A way of being - Carl Rogers
 
"Connectome" by Sebastian Seung
"Incognito" by David Eagleman

Not exactly psychiatry books... more like neuroscience books with a psychiatric tinge. I thought Connectome was more engaging, but Incognito was actually an interesting read before I even decided to go into psychiatry.
 
Starting my audition electives soon..What is a good book for 4th year students/interns to have? I'm looking for a general text, something equivalent to Harrison's for IM or Nelsons for Peds. During my clerkship I used FA for Psych but I have a feeling a flimsy review book won't cut it if i really want to impress my attendings.

Thanks.
 
eastcoastdr said:
Starting my audition electives soon..What is a good book for 4th year students/interns to have? I'm looking for a general text, something equivalent to Harrison's for IM or Nelsons for Peds. During my clerkship I used FA for Psych but I have a feeling a flimsy review book won't cut it if i really want to impress my attendings.

Thanks.
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I think a flimsy review book is about right. If you want to impress your attendings, I would recommend spending more time with your patients, try to get to know them and work on a therapeutic relationship. Get really comfortable with doing a mental state exam in a natural way that doesn't obstruct the patients narrative. Now THAT would be impressive :)
 
I was lent a copy of Psychiatry Boards Pearls of Wisdom by an attending that (he and) I thought contained some really interesting more clinical pearls than you'd find in the FA review book. Even though it's technically for board review the information/level is accessible to a medical student.
But smallbird is of course correct.
One thing I would add is that a nuanced understanding of psychiatric medication side effects drives many treatment decisions and is something that is really worth understanding, even at the medical student level. The First Aid book, while a good introduction in general, is not particularly strong in that regard.
 
I am a MS4, and I'd love a book to prime myself for PGY-1 in Psychiatry. Is there a decent primer out there that's current? It would optimally at least introduce principles of Psychopharm and Psychotherapy. Thanks!
 
Asklepian said:
I am a MS4, and I'd love a book to prime myself for PGY-1 in Psychiatry. Is there a decent primer out there that's current? It would optimally at least introduce principles of Psychopharm and Psychotherapy. Thanks!
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This one is pretty good, if you're in the mood to buy your first comprehensive textbook: http://www.amazon.com/American-Psyc...qid=1420211812&sr=8-1&keywords=apa+psychiatry
It's current, DSM-5 based, and not unreadable. Oyherwise, you could always just go for the K&S Synopsis, I suppose.
 
Your school should have access to psychiatryonline.org where you can read the book for free, instead of shelling out 200 dollars.
 
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ima4ltrwrd said:
Your school should have access to psychiatryonline.org where you can read the book for free, instead of shelling out 200 dollars.
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Thank you for this, I found the most recent edition of the book OldPsychDoc posted for free! :D
 
If anyone wants a pdf copy of A General Theory of Love, Listening to Prozac, or Nestler's Molecular Neuropharmacology send me a pm
 
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Anybody know of any good books/textbooks for introductions to forensic psych?
 
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