Abstract
This is an excellent book for clinicians treating people with schizophrenia; it combines a great deal of schizophrenia research findings with practical clinical management strategies. In so doing, the book is quite unusual, as in most books on the same subject there is a distinction between the ‘how to’ manuals (clinical management) and the ‘what causes’ tomes (research updates).
The book begins predictably with homage to Kraepelin and the usual epidemiological statistics (‘schizophrenia worldwide is about 1%’), but the reader is then given interesting and digestible information on the genetics, neuroanatomy, neurodevelopmental, neurochemistry and neurophysiological theories of aetiology of schizophrenia. This is a good current summary for registrars approaching exams. Chapter 3 presents an overall treatment philosophy, which emphasizes an integrated biopsychosocial approach. Case vignettes are used frequently and well to illustrate points. The selection of an antipsychotic is particularly well handled, which is very important in the current situation of many new and competing antipsychotic drugs being available. Each antipsychotic is described impartially in terms of its side-effect profile, efficacy and brief history.
Section two of the book deals with treating and managing the phases of schizophrenia. There are excellent sections about managing the acute phase, the stable phase and rehabilitation. The only part of this book that seemed a bit weak was the lack of ‘state-of-the-art’ information on the specific assessment and management of patients with coexisting substance abuse plus schizophrenia. This common clinical problem was only briefly addressed and deserves much more attention.
Overall, this is a good reference book for clinicians, research and postgraduate students working with patients with schizophrenia.