Portable Psychiatry: Praise and Aspirations for the Oxford Handbook

• Published in: PsycCritiques Vol. 51; no. 11; p. No Pagination Specified
• Main Author: Braun, Michelle M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Psychological Association 15.03.2006
• Subjects: Etiology; Human; Mental Disorders; Psychiatric Symptoms; Psychiatry; Psychopharmacology
• ISSN: 1554-0138; 1554-0138
• DOI: 10.1037/a0001657

Reviews the book, Oxford Handbook of Psychiatry by David Semple, Roger Smyth, Jonathan Burns, Rajan Darjee, and Andrew McIntosh (see record 2005-10686-000). This handbook provides medical students and beginning psychiatrists with a solid overview of the core tenets of adult psychiatry. One of its many strengths is its impressive scope of material, augmenting traditional disorder-specific information on etiology, symptoms, and psychotropic treatment with population-specific coverage and practical, process-related information and suggestions. Extending beyond the realm of a typical pocket guide, the handbook also provides users with the added convenience of diagnostic codes (ICD-10 and DSM-IV), sample questions to assess important symptoms, and information on vital process-related areas that are all too often given short shrift. Despite these strengths, coverage of topics more traditionally in the purview of psychology, but which could arguably be more emphasized in psychiatry--such as psychotherapy, the relevance of assessment tools, and the role of health promotion--does not incorporate the best information these areas have to offer. Overall, though, this handbook offers an impressive breadth of evidence-based material and will undoubtedly be a resource found in the pockets of many practitioners. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)