Practitioner's Guide to Symptom Base Rates in the General Population

Book excerpt: This volume is a compilation of the symptoms reported among the control groups from studies involving neuropsychologically impaired individuals and those with various medical and psychiatric conditions. The proposed project represents the logical progression from the previous volume, Practitioner's Guide to Symptom Base Rates in Clinical Neuropsychology. Whereas the previous book presented findings from the patient population, this book will cover the base rate of a particular symptom in the nonpatient/general population. This volume would provide clinicians with the necessary information to interpret any given patient's presenting symptoms relative to what is "normal" in the general population or "normal" for people similar to the patient. When used in conjunction with the previous volume, the clinician will also be able to interpret presenting symptoms relative to what is "typical" for patients with the same condition, allowing the clinician to consider the patient from a variety of standpoints. This volume would be of great usefulness to a wide variety of clinical practitioners in the fields of clinical neuropsychology, clinical psychology, forensics, neurology, neuropsychiatry, and psychiatry. The volume would also be useful in a variety of research settings. Examples of its applicability include providing valuable information to medical and psychological professionals working in the pharmaceutical industry in the development of new drugs, as well as professionals working in such areas as epidemiology and environmental health.