Hagop S. Akiskal – författare

Be Guided by the Evidence... Somatoform disorders are more common than many clinicians realize and are often underdiagnosed and poorly managed. This practical guide provides a comprehensive overview of all somatoform disorders. It aims to enable the mental health practitioner to properly diagnose and manage the disorders as well as to provide the appropriate advice to colleagues of other medical disciplines. Somatoform Disorders offers:* Detailed coverage of the concepts of each disorder: diagnosis, classification, co-morbidities and course and outcome* An outline of clinical, biological and psychosocial research in the area* An overview of clinical management and future perspectives* The unique series format of systematic reviews followed by commentaries Somatoform Disorders is the ninth volume of the WPA Series "Evidence and Experience in Psychiatry. The book is an unbiased and reliable reference point for all psychiatrists, psychologists, mental health nurses and policy makers.

"If a colleague were to ask me, "What would you recommend I read if I want to become a real expert on bipolarity?" I would respond Bipolar Psychopharmacotherapy: Caring for the Patient."Journal of Bipolar Disorders And the second edition is even better! Bipolar Psychopharmacotherapy covers both pharmacotherapy and the supportive role of psychotherapy, psychoeducation and social approaches to provide a broad integrative philosophy of care for bipolar patients. Extensive coverage is given to special management issues such as the pharmacological care of women with bipolar disorder, children and the elderly, as well as bipolar depression and suicide prevention.The mood swings that characterize bipolar disorder can now be better stabilized in most patients than in the past, but the illness must be carefully managed throughout a person's life. Pharmacotherapy is central to the acute treatment and long-term management and as there are several classes of drugs which are often prescribed concurrently, treatment issues are complex. This essential reference work features critical reviews of the existing literature, plus information on new treatments that have been reported at peer reviewed scientific meetings, often written by the pioneering experts on a particular treatment. The second-generation antipsychotics are now covered in separate chapters to provide in-depth coverage of these agents. There are also new chapters on the pharmacological treatments of mixed states and rapid cycling and novel therapeutic vistas.

Many clinicians and researchers are convinced that there is an overlap between affective and schizophrenic spectra. In this book, an international team of experts discuss aspects of comorbidity, genetic models, clinical course, phenomenology and therapies. This is the first comprehensive overview of the schizoaffective spectra. Challenging cases presenting clinical and paraclinical features of both spectra are surprisingly numerous. Not only the phenomenology but also the course, outcome and treatment of such cases have their own characteristics. Recent research shows that the overlap also involves genetics and biological processes related to psychotic disorders. Within the overlap of affective and schizophrenic spectra it is possible to identify some groups of disorders having similar clinical and non-clinical features: the 'schizoaffective' group, 'Acute and Transient Psychotic Disorder' or 'Brief Psychosis', and other groups found in so-called 'Atypical Forms'.

Many clinicians and researchers are convinced that there is an overlap between affective and schizophrenic spectra. In this book, an international team of experts discuss aspects of comorbidity, genetic models, clinical course, phenomenology and therapies. This is the first comprehensive overview of the schizoaffective spectra. Challenging cases presenting clinical and paraclinical features of both spectra are surprisingly numerous. Not only the phenomenology but also the course, outcome and treatment of such cases have their own characteristics. Recent research shows that the overlap also involves genetics and biological processes related to psychotic disorders. Within the overlap of affective and schizophrenic spectra it is possible to identify some groups of disorders having similar clinical and non-clinical features: the 'schizoaffective' group, 'Acute and Transient Psychotic Disorder' or 'Brief Psychosis', and other groups found in so-called 'Atypical Forms'.

In this book we present a conceptually integrated approach to disorders of mood. These disorders are defined narrowly as the clinical syndromes of mania and melancholia. The latter is our particular focus, for the simple reason that it is more common and thus more is known about it. Our approach owes much to Adolf Meyer, who first used the term psychobiology. It was he who emphasized in a practical way the importance of the clinician consider­ ing the joint contribution of psychosocial and biological factors in the genesis of mental disorders. However, until the 1960s, our relative ignorance of basic mechanisms that link brain and behavior prevented the development of a genuine psychobiological perspective. Thus Meyer's work was concerned largely with teaching the importance of the personal biography and a consideration of social history in the development of mental disorder. We feel that sufficiently rigorous data have now emerged in psychia­ try to permit tentative but real psychobiological integration. Affective illness is proba­ bly the most promising area for an attempt at such a synthesis. It is our belief that the theory and clinical practice of psychiatry now can be woven into a coherent theme, integrating insights and evidence generated by the psychodynamic, biological, and behavioral methods; hence in part we review the emerging psychobiology of mood disorders with the hope that it can serve as a generic paradigm for other psychiatric syndromes.