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The Complete Guide to Psychiatric Drugs: Straight Talk for Best Results

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Psychiatric syndromes like depression, anxiety, and bipolar are explained along with reasons why certain drugs are used instead of others.

About two pages are devoted to each medication. Common, expected side effects are described. For example, Paxil is said to take two to four weeks to cause improvement, even though side effects may appear in one to two days. Fatigue, weakness, and sexual dysfunction are the most common side effects. Your symtoms may return if you stop taking Paxil--even if taper off the medication gradually.

If you want to know how exactly drugs work, Appendix A shows the part of the synapse/neuron that is involved for each of the major classes of psychiatric drugs.

For the person who is contemplating phsychiatric treatment, "medication" can have an intimidating impression especially if it is a foreign subject. The book will help you make you this important decision by giving you updated information on the newest prescription drugs. For those who are uncomfortable, alternatives and non-drug options are discussed as well. A wide range of psychiatric syndromes are covered: Anxiety disorders, ADD, Bipolar, Depression, Developmental disorders, Drug dependence, Eating disorders, Insomnia, Pshychosis, and even Alzheimer's Disease. A wide range is covered..

This book is very easy to understand. It is a great resource for clinicians and therapists.

"The Complete Guide to Psychiatric Drugs: Straight Talk for Best Results" is a wonderful book. Edward Drummond doesn't just explain the different types of mental illnesses, he explains why they are difficult to diagnose. He lists the many drugs used to treat mental illness, but he is not an extremist. Included are lifestyle changes and counseling recommendations that may be helpful. Use what works seems to be his mantra.

Drummond reviews each disease state separately, explaining the symptoms, dietary and lifestyle management, counseling, medications to treat it. When he discusses the medications, he explains in plain English the pros and cons of each medication class, what drugs he chooses for this group of patients versus that, what the alternative drugs would be. This section is incredibly helpful. Most medication guides only explain what each drug is for, but they do not explain the logic behind choosing the therapy.

There is a section listing the drugs in alphabetical order by generic name, what they are used for and their side effects. The most useful information not often found in other texts is time to onset of effects, how long before the full effects of the medication, what a full trial of the medication is (so you don't give up too soon), and the effects of abrupt withdrawal for each medication.

The text is very easy for the patient to read but suitable for the health professional, as well. In fact, though patients may find the book useful, they may have to skip large parts of it which may not pertain to themselves. Whereas, the health professional may read straight through (and I personally found it to be of great interest, which I normally would not). I highly recommend this book.

I brought this book several weeks ago and I found it systematic and easy to read. It even provides introductions of drugs for various mental illness. It becomes my must read reference in handling cases.

strong points: i'm a therapist who has many patients taking psychiatric meds, and while i don't prescribe them myself (nor have any desire to), i do need to know at least a thumbnail sketch about most of them. this book does the trick for me. it avoids the irrelevant and obscure detail of the Physician's Desk Reference and hits on the necessary basics (dosages, side effects, dangers, potential "benefits", brand versus generic names - and it has a good index!).

that said: this book, like all others of its ilk, almost completely avoids touching on the notion that medication in most cases can be terribly anti-therapeutic, and is prescribed by doctors for much the same reason drug addicts prescribe themselves the assortment of illicit drugs - symptom relief. these drugs cure no one, just keep people happily numb and in check, and are basically prescribed to help people improve their level of functioning IN THE SHORT TERM. if it were up to me, i'd restructure the whole system and do away with most of these meds entirely.

there's a funny thing i've noticed: when a patient comes to me and wants both therapy and medication (say, Zoloft), i can almost certainly surmise that he or she has less motivation for doing deep inner work (which produces the long-term gain) than someone who wants therapy alone and is resistant to taking medication. doing therapy (learning to know oneself at one's deepest level of being) is a painful process. medication takes away pain. you do the math.

and as for that idea that being on psych meds gives someone a "platform from which to do deep inner work"? as for evidence, i haven't seen it. but i do think it's a great rationalization!