Fundamentals of Clinical Psychopharmacology, Fourth Edition

Book excerpt: Fundamentals of Clinical Psychopharmacology provides up-to-date, evidence-based and unbiased information about psychopharmacology. It spans the range of the discipline, from mode of action and side effects of drugs to meta-analyses of clinical trials. It is anchored to practice guidelines produced by the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the British Association for Psychopharmacology (BAP). Care has been taken to provide an international perspective that makes it equally useful to practitioners in the US and other countries. The book grew out of BAP courses that set the standard for professional psychopharmacological education in the UK. This latest edition is fully updated and provides, in a concise and easy-to-read format, key facts about currently used psychotropic drugs, set in the context of the neuroscience of the disorders they treat. It also includes a new chapter on the principles of psychiatric prescribing. Key references, including the clinical studies discussed, are provided at the end of the chapter along with suggestions for further reading. Intended to be a frequently updated, affordable, concise and practical resource, it meets the needs of trainees and practitioners seeking to keep abreast of the state of the art in psychopharmacology.