Psicofarmacologia

Featuring extensive updates to all chapters, this 2nd edition includes a new and timely discussion of emerging substances of abuse and presentation of key biological concepts to help students understand current ideas about how mental illnesses arise and how drugs act on the brain to treat these illnesses. Also includes two new chapters.

Drs. Stephen M. Stahl and Bret A. Moore have created an instant classic in Anxiety Disorders: A Guide for Integrating Psychopharmacology and Psychotherapy. Anxiety Disorders is a comprehensive reference for the psychiatry and psychology student, intern, or resident, early career psychiatrist or psychologist, and the busy clinician. It distills the most important information regarding combined treatments for anxiety and presents the material in an easily accessible, understandable, and readable format. Each chapter addresses a specific type of disorder: PTSD, panic, generalized anxiety, obsessive-compulsive and other disorders, and is authored by prominent clinicians with years of experience in providing integrated, individualized treatments. With its thorough exploration of psychopharmacological treatments, psychosocial treatments, and, crucially, the integration of the two, Anxiety Disorders is a text no 21st-century clinician or student can afford to be without.

"If a colleague were to ask me, "What would you recommend I read if I want to become a real expert on bipolarity?" I would respond Bipolar Psychopharmacotherapy: Caring for the Patient ." Journal of Bipolar Disorders And the second edition is even better! Bipolar Psychopharmacotherapy covers both pharmacotherapy and the supportive role of psychotherapy, psychoeducation and social approaches to provide a broad integrative philosophy of care for bipolar patients. Extensive coverage is given to special management issues such as the pharmacological care of women with bipolar disorder, children and the elderly, as well as bipolar depression and suicide prevention. The mood swings that characterize bipolar disorder can now be better stabilized in most patients than in the past, but the illness must be carefully managed throughout a person's life. Pharmacotherapy is central to the acute treatment and long-term management and as there are several classes of drugs which are often prescribed concurrently, treatment issues are complex. This essential reference work features critical reviews of the existing literature, plus information on new treatments that have been reported at peer reviewed scientific meetings, often written by the pioneering experts on a particular treatment. The second-generation antipsychotics are now covered in separate chapters to provide in-depth coverage of these agents. There are also new chapters on the pharmacological treatments of mixed states and rapid cycling and novel therapeutic vistas.

"Dr. Paris has written an honest, balanced presentation of the ways in which psychiatric drugs are evaluated and prescribed. He highlights the complexity of the task, the limits of what is known and the mixed picture that research often produces. His conclusions are refreshing because they are built from an even-handed, pragmatic assessment of the empirical evidence. The result is a stimulating look at the world of treatments for emotional disorders that acknowledges the usefulness of both biological and psychosocial explanations where appropriate. His recommendations provide helpful roadmaps for patients, practitioners and researchers alike. The book is sure to serve as a welcome catalyst for the continuing debates about which treatments are likely to produce the best outcomes." -Roger P. Greenberg, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor and Head, Psychology Division Dept. of Psychiatry & Behavioral Science SUNY Upstate Medical University, NY, USA The message of this book is that psychiatrists have some very good drugs, but can expect bad results when they are over-used, prescribed outside of evidence-based indications, or given to the wrong patients. While acknowledging that many current agents are highly effective and have revolutionized the treatment of certain disorders, Joel Paris criticizes their use outside of an evidence base. Too many patients are either over-medicated or are misdiagnosed to justify aggressive treatment. Dr. Paris calls for more government funding of clinical trials to establish, without bias, the effectiveness of these agents. He has written this book for practitioners and trainees to show that scientific evidence supports a more cautious and conservative approach to drug therapy. After describing the history of psychopharmacology, including its early successes, Dr. Paris reviews the relationship between psychiatry and the pharmaceutical industry. This problem has received considerable popular attention in recent years and Dr. Paris documents initiatives to increase transparency and decrease the influence of pharmaceutical marketing on diagnosis and prescribing habits. Dr Paris then examines some major controversies. One is the fact that newer drugs have not been shown to be superior to older agents. Another is that while the number of prescriptions for antidepressants has increased dramatically, meta-analyses show that their value is more limited than previously believed. Still another is the widespread prescription of mood stabilizers and antipsychotic drugs for patients, including children and adolescents, who do not have bipolar illness. Polypharmacy is an especially contentious area: very few drug combinations have been tested in clinical trials, yet many patients end up on a cocktail of powerful drugs, each with its own side effects. Dr Paris briefly considers alternatives to pharmacology and again calls for more clinical trials of these approaches. He also discusses the current trend to medicalizing what many would describe as normal distress and states succinctly: Some things in life are worth being upset about.

All of the titles in the Stahl's Illustrated series are designed to be fun. Concepts are illustrated by full-color images that will be familiar to all readers of Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology, Third Edition and The Prescriber's Guide. The texts in this user-friendly series can be supplements to figures, images and tables. The visual learner will find that these books make psychopharmacology concepts easy to master, while the non-visual learner will enjoy a shortened text version of complex psychopharmacology concepts. Within each book, each chapter builds on previous chapters, synthesizing information from basic biology and diagnostics to building treatment plans and dealing with complications and comorbidities. Novices may want to approach the Stahl's Illustrated series by first looking through all the graphics and gaining a feel for the visual vocabulary. Readers more familiar with these topics should find that going back and forth between images and text provides an interaction with which to vividly conceptualize complex pharmacologies. And, to help guide the reader toward more in-depth learning about particular concepts, each book ends with a Suggested Reading section.

Although clinical trials were virtually unheard of in psychiatry for many years, they are now the gold standard for judging whether drugs are safe and useful. But should they be? What is the true status of clinical trials? Even when they ostensibly demonstrate a benefit of a certain treatment, the strict patient selection criteria, poor compliance and high drop-out rate leave the conclusions open to question. Are the new treatments really better or more cost-effective than the old? Do they have fewer side effects? In this book the authors take a critical look at recent developments and present a series of trenchant and challenging observations. Section I examines the significant changes in law and the regulatory environment that have occurred during the past ten years. Has fossilization handicapped the US Food and Drug Administration in promoting treatment advances? How can the plethora of findings be regulated? This is particularly pertinent in genomic studies and there are two chapters addressing the impact of genomics on psychiatric research. This section also addresses the role of women in drug trials - a group long excluded but now demanding a part, for without testing how can optimal treatments be devised? The next two Sections highlight clinical trials in the major areas of psychiatric pharmacological treatment, including Mood Disorders, especially Bipolar, Anxiety Disorders, and addictions. Chapters on pharmacological treatments for Eating Disorders, Attention Deficit Disorder, Autism and Asperger's Syndrome, and Impulse Control Disorder represent the latest thinking on these subjects. The final Section contains a consummate example of out-of-the [Western]- box thinking, namely consideration of herbal medicines - used by a large number of patients, with or without medical supervision. We conclude with a close look at the problem of side effects, then selected thoughts about methodology. Clearly written, the text provides immediate access to new developments across the spectrum of drug testing. Clinical Trials in Psychopharmacology: A Better Brain is provocative reading for psychiatrists, pharmacologists and all those interested in improved drug treatments for patients with mental illness.* Raises questions about the conduct of trials and the credibility of their outcomes that are relevant not just in psychiatry but all areas of medicine * Discusses the ethical problems in assessing outcomes in humans, including children