Alfredo Carlo Altamura - Böcker

This case series book offers a practical and accessible approach to psychiatry, addressing major clinical problems ranging from psychosis to aging effects, each of which is tackled as it arises in everyday settings. With its emphasis on everyday practice strongly linked to underlying theory, the book combines clinical knowledge with the realities of managing clinical problems, and will provide a basis for developing sound analytical and confident decision-making skills. Presenting different visions of clinical psychiatry and expanding psychiatrists’ interventions by integrating innovative neuroscience approaches such as neuroimaging, neuropsychology, TMS and cognitive rehabilitation, it will help clinicians and students alike gain a sound understanding of the wide range of signs and symptoms that indicate psychiatric disorders, and how the diagnosis, management and treatment options can differ from those in other medical specialties. The volume includes learning activities, with questions on each clinical case followed by detailed explanatory answers, and self-assessment exercises to assist with learning and revision. Throughout the book, tips and key features are highlighted with boxes, algorithms, tables and figures, which the reader can refer back to for exam revision and well into her/his career.

This book presents state of the art knowledge on the psychopathology, clinical symptomatology, biology, and treatment of hallucinations in patients with psychoses and affective disorders. The opening section describes and examines the origins of the hallucinatory symptoms associated with schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, and drug- or substance-induced psychoses. In addition, progress in understanding of hallucinations in children and adolescents and chronic hallucinatory disorder is reviewed, and the value of a Research Domain Criteria approach in elucidating the emergence of auditory hallucinations is explained. The biological basis of hallucinations is then closely scrutinized with reference to recent genetic research, neurochemical studies, and functional and structural neuroimaging data. Outcomes of a meta-analysis of diffusion tensor imaging studies regarding the association between white matter integrity and auditory verbal hallucinations are highlighted. The closing chaptersfocus on the roles of drug treatment and electric and magnetic brain stimulation techniques. The book will be of wide interest to psychiatrists and clinical psychologists.

This book presents state of the art knowledge on the psychopathology, clinical symptomatology, biology, and treatment of hallucinations in patients with psychoses and affective disorders.