Bringing together treatment and referral advice from existing guidelines, this text aims to improve access to services and recognition of common mental health disorders in adults and provide advice on the principles that need to be adopted to develop appropriate referral and local care pathways.

This volume, devoted to the treatment of nervous and mental diseases, is designed to meet the needs which the rapid advances in knowledge of neurology and psychiatry have created. The nervous system is here regarded as a whole and as inclusive of the mind, and it is maintained that disturbances of any and all of its functions, mental as well as physical, are proper subjects for therapeutics. The present work lays emphasis upon the psychical side of life as being worth quite as much consideration as the physical. It sets forth doctrines of nervous and mental hygiene, reconstructive factors in social organization as applied to human ills, and endeavors to present a broad front to the pessimistic nihilism in therapeutics that has been too long current in these fields, because the doctor's eyes have been too closely focused on the individual examples and results of human accidents. Neurology and psychiatry offer the widest possible opportunities for preventive medicine as well as for therapeutic optimism. The program here presented is essentially therapeutic. Planned as it has been on a broad scale, the more practical issues confronting the clinician have, nevertheless, been fully met. The editors have sacrificed philosophical views for more definite guideposts wherever, in the present state of our knowledge, such a course seemed wiser. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved).

Use of psychotropic drugs has come to dominate clinical practice in psychiatry worldwide—perhaps owing largely to perceived simplicity, ease of use, and apparent efficiency, as well as apparent cost-effectiveness of such treatments. Nevertheless, medicinal treatments for patients with psychiatric disorders are but one component of comprehensive clinical care of complex human problems. Extensively updated since its second edition in 1985, Chemotherapy in Psychiatry, Third Edition, again addresses basic aspects of modern psychopharmacology and clinical applications of drugs used in the treatment of major psychiatric disorders, with major emphasis on psychotic, bipolar, and depressive disorders. The presentation covers descriptions of the main classes of psychotropic drugs, selected information concerning their known action mechanisms and metabolic disposition, and their clinical applications for acute illnesses and to prevent recurrences and long-term morbidity. Also covered are limitations and adverse effects of each type of agent, with emphasis on the fact that all psychotropic medicines have adverse effects that range from annoying to potentially lethal. Chemotherapy in Psychiatry, Third Edition, outlines the need to balance benefits and risks at the level of individual persons. Authoritative, and an important contribution to the literature, Chemotherapy in Psychiatry, Third Edition is an invaluable resource for physicians, scientists, trainees, and policymakers.

Diagnosis in psychiatry -- DSM and its discontents -- Over-diagnosis and overtreatment -- Science, philosophy and diagnosis -- How "major" is major depression? -- The boundaries of bipolarity -- PTSD and trauma -- ADHD and attention -- Personality and personality disorder -- Other disorders in which over-diagnosis is a risk -- Transdiagnostic approaches -- The rise of aggressive psychopharmacology -- How do we know what is normal? -- Where do we go from here?

This manual attempts to provide simple, adequate and evidence-based information to health care professionals in primary health care especially in low- and middle-income countries to be able to provide pharmacological treatment to persons with mental disorders. The manual contains basic principles of prescribing followed by chapters on medicines used in psychotic disorders; depressive disorders; bipolar disorders; generalized anxiety and sleep disorders; obsessive compulsive disorders and panic attacks; and alcohol and opioid dependence. The annexes provide information on evidence retrieval, assessment and synthesis and the peer view process.