This is an interesting and comprehensive new monograph written by a British author covering schizophrenia and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. "The purpose, as stated by the author, is to follow in Fish's footsteps and provide a clinically oriented account of schizophrenia suitable for the general psychiatrist, particularly the trainee psychiatrist. The author very much met his goal in this phenomenologically clinical-research oriented monograph. "The intended audience for this monograph is practicing psychiatrists, psychiatry residents, trainees in behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry, schizophrenia researchers, and nonphysician mental health workers who care for patients with schizophrenia. The monograph's list price is $85.00 and well worth it! "It is divided into 13 chapters and includes topics such as the cardinal symptoms of schizophrenia, the clinical picture, the natural history, the diagnosis, etiological factors pathogenesis, the psychology and neuropsychology, neuroleptic drug treatment, management, paraphrenia and paranoia, schizoaffective and other atypical psychoses, schizophrenia and organic brain disease, childhood schizophrenia, autism, and Asperger's syndrome. In each chapter the author beautifully describes the rich phenomenology of schizophrenia and related disorders and critically reviews the research from a historical perspective. The book is filled with helpful charts and tables. The index is also quite helpful and the references are voluminous and up-to-date. "This is an excellent, comprehensive, and up-to-date new monograph that essentially replaces and improves on Fish's Schizophrenia. No psychiatry resident should be trained in1994 without this monograph, and I can't imagine practicing psychiatry without knowing this stuff!
Reviewer: Michael Schrift, DO (University of Washington School of Medicine)
Description: This is an interesting and comprehensive new monograph written by a British author covering schizophrenia and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.
Purpose: The purpose, as stated by the author, "is to follow in Fish's footsteps and provide a clinically oriented account of schizophrenia suitable for the general psychiatrist, particularly the trainee psychiatrist." The author very much met his goal in this phenomenologically clinical-research oriented monograph.
Audience: The intended audience for this monograph is practicing psychiatrists, psychiatry residents, trainees in behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry, schizophrenia researchers, and nonphysician mental health workers who care for patients with schizophrenia. The monograph's list price is $85.00 and well worth it!
Features: It is divided into 13 chapters and includes topics such as the cardinal symptoms of schizophrenia, the clinical picture, the natural history, the diagnosis, etiological factors pathogenesis, the psychology and neuropsychology, neuroleptic drug treatment, management, paraphrenia and paranoia, schizoaffective and other atypical psychoses, schizophrenia and organic brain disease, childhood schizophrenia, autism, and Asperger's syndrome. In each chapter the author beautifully describes the rich phenomenology of schizophrenia and related disorders and critically reviews the research from a historical perspective. The book is filled with helpful charts and tables. The index is also quite helpful and the references are voluminous and up-to-date.
Assessment: This is an excellent, comprehensive, and up-to-date new monograph that essentially replaces and improves on Fish's Schizophrenia. No psychiatry resident should be trained in 1994 without this monograph, and I can't imagine practicing psychiatry without knowing this stuff!
"In these days of multi-author, interactive, downloadable, upgradeable data-dumps, it is an almost unique pleasure to sit down and take in a coherent piece of scholarship like this book. Gradually an epic story unfolds. It is a mystery, a tragedy, and not without its comedy. It is wholly satisfying and yet leaves you wanting more." - Anthony David, Institute of Psychiatry, UK
"If descriptive psychiatry has gained a renewed sense of respect in recent years it owes it to books like this, which present a scholarly and sceptical piece of scientific knowledge while giving readers the sense of a novel in schizophrenia literature by unfolding the mystery of this disorder... In particular, psychiatrists and clinical psychologists as well as the trainees in these professions can use this book as a comprehensive guide to the world of schizophrenia." - Patapia-Maria Tzotzoli, Journal of Mental Health, Vol. 17, No. 3, June 2008
