Handbook of Bipolar Disorder: Diagnosis and Therapeutic Approaches
http://www.100md.com
《新英格兰医药杂志》
Bipolar disorder, a frequently unrecognized or misdiagnosed disorder, is the focus of intense research in psychiatry and the neurosciences. This book is a timely synthesis of the growing fund of knowledge about the phenomenology, neurobiology, and treatment of this multifaceted neuropsychiatric illness. The book arises from a collaboration between European and American researchers (60 percent of the first authors of its 27 chapters are European). Many of the chapters are very well written, and it is reassuring that 41 percent of the 2259 references were published from 2000 to 2005.
Handbook of Bipolar Disorder deals with topics that are not found in many other books on this illness, such as the diagnosis and treatment of bipolar disorder in children and in geriatric populations, the continuum between bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, the concept of the bipolar spectrum, and emerging treatment algorithms. The discussion of the management of various bipolar phases and coexisting illnesses is predominantly evidence based. However, there is not enough emphasis concerning the flagrant lack of useful drugs for the depressive phase of the illness, despite many options for the manic phase. This need is highlighted in a recent collaborative study by the National Institute of Mental Health showing that 75 percent of the symptomatic days in the life of a patient with bipolar disorder are spent in a depressive mood.
The redundancy of topics among the chapters can be regarded as an innovative technique to provide readers with diverse perspectives about a given issue, but it may have been overdone. Is it truly necessary to have eight overlapping chapters about pharmacotherapy? Aside from this quibble, I have two other criticisms. First, few chapters are well illustrated with tables and figures; half do not have a single table, and 70 percent have no figures. Second, some important topics are not sufficiently addressed, including suicide, neuroimaging, and concurrent medical illnesses.
Henry A. Nasrallah, M.D.
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine
Cincinnati, OH 45267
henry.nasrallah@uc.edu((Medical Psychiatry. 32.))
Handbook of Bipolar Disorder deals with topics that are not found in many other books on this illness, such as the diagnosis and treatment of bipolar disorder in children and in geriatric populations, the continuum between bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, the concept of the bipolar spectrum, and emerging treatment algorithms. The discussion of the management of various bipolar phases and coexisting illnesses is predominantly evidence based. However, there is not enough emphasis concerning the flagrant lack of useful drugs for the depressive phase of the illness, despite many options for the manic phase. This need is highlighted in a recent collaborative study by the National Institute of Mental Health showing that 75 percent of the symptomatic days in the life of a patient with bipolar disorder are spent in a depressive mood.
The redundancy of topics among the chapters can be regarded as an innovative technique to provide readers with diverse perspectives about a given issue, but it may have been overdone. Is it truly necessary to have eight overlapping chapters about pharmacotherapy? Aside from this quibble, I have two other criticisms. First, few chapters are well illustrated with tables and figures; half do not have a single table, and 70 percent have no figures. Second, some important topics are not sufficiently addressed, including suicide, neuroimaging, and concurrent medical illnesses.
Henry A. Nasrallah, M.D.
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine
Cincinnati, OH 45267
henry.nasrallah@uc.edu((Medical Psychiatry. 32.))