Medicines for Mental Health: The Ultimate Guide to Psychiatric Medication 2nd Edition, Kindle Edition

Great book

This book is great. The only thing is, I was hoping for a more current, up-to - date volume. This is not the fault of the author. I should have looked at the publication date when I purchased this book. Still in all, it is an excellent resource.

Kevin Thompson wrote Medicines For Mental Health, The Ultimate Guide to Psychiatric Medication because the book needed to be written and read by those of us who are experiencing some form of mental illness. Those of us who experience depression and other forms of mental illness typically go to psychiatrists for help. Psychiatrists prescribe drugs to assist us in living our daily lives. The selection of the appropriate drug with the appropriate dose to fit each individual is as much an art as it is a science. Many times questions remain unanswered.Drugs used to treat mental illness affect the patient's entire life. First, there are a number of drugs to choose from, each may or may not be effective for a particular individual at a specified dose, and each has potential side effects. Many of the drugs take time to become effective. Second, each patient must become an active participant in their own therapy by observing and reporting their individual response to the drug. Highly intelligent people, typical victims of depression and other forms of mental illnesses, often have creative jobs. Certain medications can destroy an individual's ability to think, perform as a professional, interfere with personal relationship, inhibit a person's sexual performance, or simply make it impossible to stay awake. This book provides information to the patient, and perhaps their loved ones, on how an individual can observe, understand and participate in his own treatment.The author has organized the information in such a way that a patient can locate a disorder, identified the drugs typically prescribed to treat that disorder, gather information regarding doses and periods of effectiveness, and become aware of the possible side effects. The information in the book is not exhaustive from a medical viewpoint. However, it provides useful information for the patient, information either not discussed or covered too quickly by the psychiatrists.J. F. Skipper Ph.D.

This book was lacking in current. knowledge about the growing drug market of today. The annual PDR is superiorand up to date.

Kevin Thompson, Ph.D. has put together avery user-friendly, well-organized andinfomative guide to current psychopharmacology.Symptoms of mental illness, most appropriatemedications, side effects and their profiles,are described in a succinct and comprehensivestyle. I would describe the guide as elegant.For my particular interest in lithium, I wasvery pleased to read the Q-T cardiac prolongationside effect warning, that lacks priority in mayother medical guides I have read.I am very happy to have this guide in my collection.It is great for the layman with a very considerateGlossary of psychiatric terms in the final chapter.Squiggles

This is a very useful book for anyone with a family member or close friend being treated for depression, particularly if they went through a couple of different treatment options before finding one that worked - or if they are going through that process right now.It was enlightening to find out that identical depression symptoms can result from different problems in brain chemistry and that there are different classes of anti-depressants distinguished by how they affect brain chemistry, e.g., Monoamine Oxidase inhibitors versus reuptake inhibitors. Once the right class of anti-depressants is identified for an individual, the next step becomes a search for the medicine with the side effects that the individual tolerates best.This book provides a roadmap to a treatment process that can otherwise seem bewildering or random. With this book as a reference, it doesn't have to be either. Highly recommended.

As a registered nurse, I must be picky about which books I use for reference. This book is fairly comprehensive in scope and can be used for the health care professional as well as any person simply interested in this topic. It is obvious that Dr. dePlume went to great effort and thought in putting this together. I am recommending it to all my colleagues.At first I was a little put off because there is no index, but the table of contents is structured in such a way that it is not too difficult to find what I am looking for. That plus lots of cross-referencing throughout the book make it easy to use.

Several years ago I needed a good antidepressant and was put on Effexor. The depression lifted but I had hand tremors, inability to fall aspleep at night leading to the desire to sleep all day and a serious loss of libido. I met Nom dePlume on the net and he suggested Lexapro and the level of fighting depression was actually better with none of the side effects I'd encountered with Effexor.I have the highest respect for the author. I've read this book on the net as it's developed and am thrilled the final version is out in hard copy!Highly recommend!

Great book but basic. It does not list all the medications but does provide a good introduction to the medications, I bought this book more as a reference guide but it really is not that, so I have had to use it in combinations with other texts like the BNF. Still if you are new to this field and want a really good introduction then this is the book for you. It does list the major medications but does not go into (much) detailed information about each of medication, rather provides a general overview of what they do.I would still recommend as an introduction book, its a great starting point and then look into others which might have more material about the things you are interested/require more information about. It also does not have off-label use medications such as medications for nightmares such as Prazosin which could have been really helpful. Also the topics covered are the 'typical' conditions people tend to suffer from rather than providing information about all the medications in section 4 of the BNF. That's doctors book about all mental health medication.The book is worth it though, it cases the medications together so you can start to understand which drugs are linked and if you do have a 'typical' mental health issue (sorry for using that term) or someone you know does then it can help make sense of rushed and confusing psychiatric assessments and appointments. Note: Talk to your doctor first; the listed side-effects can be confusing and NEVER stop or reduce your medication unless told to by your doctor directly. It is good though if you are a student wanting to learn more about these types of medications.

Received this book in perfect condition within 1 day of purchased as promised. I have just starting reading the book and so far it is exactly as advertised, this book is really helpful who anyone who is suffering with a mental health condition or knows someone who is and would like to learn more about the medicines they are taking. I am a pharmacy student in a mental health hospital and wanted a easy book to read to better my knowledge on medicines, why we use them and how they work. Of course this book doesnt cover ALL medicines but it covers the basics and it is really well written and explained and could be read by anyone - even those with no medical knowledge.