My mouth watered when I saw the The
American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical
Neurosciences (4^th Edition).  
I have long searched for a comprehensive reference book covering the
many different facets of the “cutting-edge” field of neuropsychiatry and
neuroscience, but quite frankly, I have always been disappointed. That is, until now.

A flip through the table of
contents reveals a veritable who’s who of “Psychiatric” brain science. The tome is divided into 6 basic sections
and 39 chapters covering such topics as basic cellular neurophysiology,
electrophysiology and applications, neuroanatomy and assessment of functional
impairment, neuroendocrinology and pharmacotherapy. While all of these areas are covered quite routinely in
compendiums of this type, I was very impressed at the amount of coverage
devoted to “special” and applied topics (pain, headache, impulse control,
rheumatic disease, toxins, sleep and cerebrovascular disorders among many
others). One of the things that I liked
most about the book was the coverage of neuropsychological assessment from
paper and pen, to standardized tests to “objective measures” such as EEG and
the growing importance and capability of structural and functional
neuroimaging. What was also impressive are the respective chapters devoted to
ethics and education in the field, two areas conspicuously missing from many
“comprehensive” textbooks.

I was particularly impressed with
the book’s readability. In ambitious
compilations such as this, there is always a question of to whom the book is
targeted. The field is full of
esoteric, jargon-filled articles delineating the virtues of this technique
versus that. How to assess or treat
this malady or that. Conversely,
authors who choose the more popular route often alienate the more scholarly
crowd with exclusion of sufficient literature support and oversimplified
descriptions. In my opinion, the
Handbook of Psychiatry could not walk this line better. While obviously targeted towards an academic
audience, the book is written in such a way that people with limited experience
with basic neuroscience concepts can benefit. I found the research up-to-date
and comprehensive, at least as much as an overarching textbook can be. In my experience, this book is the best of
its kind on the market, and would be an immense benefit to anyone hoping to get
a global understanding of the trend towards neuroimaging and reductionism in
psychiatry.

One weakness of the book is the
conspicuous exclusion of a thoughtful philosophically-oriented article
discussing the limits of reductionism and dangers of reification. More
information about psychological approaches to the treatment of various
disorders would be welcomed as well. 
Behavioral medicine is addressed sporadically throughout the book (eg.
Secondary gain in pain disorders), however, psychological aspects of
treatment are not discussed at
length. While it is not a surprise that
a book focusing on neuropsychiatry might not cover psychological approaches
adequately, it takes a bit away from the “comprehensiveness” of the work.

Notwithstanding, The American
Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences
(4^th Edition) is certainly a great place to start for
someone wanting to learn about the field. 
While there may be better books that describe individual techniques or
areas, such as functional neuroimaging or the neurophysiology of sleep, I do
not believe there exists a more, simply written, though scholarly overarching
reference to the field.

© 2003 Michael Sakuma
 

Michael Sakuma is
Chair of the Psychology Department at Dowling
College, Long Island, New York.

Categories: MentalHealth, Psychology