The third edition of this broad, lively text depicts psychiatry as a field virtually exploding with new knowledge rather than -- as is too often the case -- as a field mired in the past. Its two distinguished authors, whose work as scholars, teachers, and research scientists serves to further enhance this volume's wide appeal, present the fundamentals for practicing psychiatry in four sections:

• Background: History, diagnosis, assessments, laboratory tests, neurobiology
• Psychiatric disorders: Cognitive disorders, schizophrenia, delusional and other psychotic disorders, mood and anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, somatoform and related disorders, dissociative disorders, alcohol-related and other substance-related disorders, personality disorders, sexual and gender identity disorders, eating disorders, adjustment disorders, and impulse control disorders
• Special topics: Suicide and violent behavior, psychiatric aspects of HIV infection, disorders of childhood and adolescence, sleep disorders, and legal issues
• Treatments: Psychosocial and somatic

In addition to exciting new 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 worldwide 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 helpful appendix of diagnostic scales and measurements now being integrated into routine clinical care. For example, the MMSE (Mini Mental State Examination, which assesses cognitive functioning) has become such an important assessment tool that students learning about cognitive disorders need to be familiar with it. An added bonus to this third edition is the authors' thoughtful inclusion of model curriculum recommendations for students and psychiatry clerkship directors. Popular among an increasing number of professors, the scope of this user-friendly textbook is sufficiently broad to satisfy students (specifically, third- and fourth-year medical students rotating through psychiatry and first- and second-year residents) who wish to gain a wide exposure to psychiatry. This highly readable, comprehensive reference will also find a wide audience among clinicians in private practice, social workers, nursing students, physician's assistants, and laypersons interested in learning more about psychiatric illnesses.

Andreasen, Nancy C., MD, PhD (Univ of Iowa); Black, Donald W., MD (Univ of Iowa)

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