Customer Reviews

Kaplan and Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry: Behavioral Sciences/Clinical Psychiatry

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you practice in the behavioral sciences, this book should be on your shelf. Features updated information on the diagnosis and treatment of all the DSM diagnoses as well as interesting historical information. Takes what's in the DSM and expands on it at some length, including psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions. Written with a surprisingly even hand towards all interventions, I have found it more useful than the DSM most of the time, especially in guiding treatment decisions. My only complaint is their decision to drop material on some of the older medications. Still, a terrific resource for the working pracitioner!

A popular standard textbook for clerkship and internship, it offers a fairly comprehensive view of the field of psychiatry as a whole. Very well written, easy to read, and with plenty of illustrations. Besides clinical knowledge, the book also provides enough history (very interesting, photoes of big names in the field), psychodynamics (lot of programs now do not offer formal training, but it is nice to know the basics as a physician), and basic neuroscience (useful in ward discussion, though not in research-depth). The basic science part is somewhat not very updated to readers who involve in basic research. In general this is a solid investigation for those who has serious interest in psychiatry. But if you are going to be a psychiatrist, this is less than enough to be a reference resorce and too big for a quick reference. It may, however, serve as an appetite before you start the Comprehensive Text Book of Psychiatry from the same authers, so that the latter won't be overwhelming.

This is a superb book for both the psychiatric and mental health prfessional reader and for the general public. It is well-written, thoroughly referenced and totally up-to-date. With the revolution in drug treament the authors provide a comprehensive survey of all drugs used in psychiatry. They also cover the psychodynamic concepts of Freud, Jung, Erikson and other theorists. This book is a must for anyone interested in this field.

As known by many, Kaplan and Kaplan (or Kaplan and Sadock's) comprehensive textbook of psychiatry is pretty much the gold standard text book for the history and diagnosis of psychiatric illness used by all residencies and medical schools in the USA. This book is a thinned soft bound edition summary of the 2 volume comprehensive book. With this book, you still get many of the helpful tables, all of the information, and at half the price. This is no substitute for the Big book, but if you read this prior to any shelf exam in medical school, or as the basis for starting research into a disease in residency, you will have a good basis and diretion so your future searches will be easier, and the exams simple. Highly recommended, very good investment for Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, and OB-Gyn residents/students to have on a shelf, and essential to psychiatric residents/students.

I purchased this book when it was the 7th edition, and own both 7th and 8th. I can say that as a student of medicine, this book may be overkill for some people, however, I find it to be the best "complete" text out there. With chapters on neuro A&P, DSM-IV clinical disorders, individual pharmacological agents, and even child psychiatry, it's all one needs to learn medical psychiatry. My only advice is for someone who isn't a student of clinical medicine or a medical professional, you might find it a difficult read.

1,400 pages is a synopsis?! It's content would be perfect for a family doctor, but I think that's asking for too much reading for most. I know a lot of psychiatrists who really like the book, that's part of why I gave it 4 stars, but I think there are other, more accessible books. My med students read Nancy Andreason's book for a general introduction. Or read the Oxford Guide to Psychopathology, a MUCH better book; supplement with Steve Hyman's book on Pharm., and do your OWN exploring in the world of psychodynamics. To suggest this latter topic can be covered in ANY "synopsis" is insulting to the field.

Some people swear by this book; I don't get it. It's a pain to either read or to use as a reference The layout of this book is busier than that of an undergraduate textbook. For no apparent reason, brain images are slapped into sections of some disorders and not others. Ditto for lists of empirical studies. The authors feel it necessary to reprint as a box the DSM-IV criteria for every disorder--only the box appears in different places for different chapters. In fact, the structure of each chapter seems somewhat different, even across chapters on similar disorders. I'm not really sure about this, though, as the organizational structure of the chapters continues to elude me. And it definitely lacks some information that most people would find helpful. For instance, there are (I believe) only two decision trees in this 1400 page opus. And lots of space is wasted. It's unclear what the first 250 or so pages are doing in this book, doing a slapdash job of covering the entire lifecycle, the brain, Jean Piaget, Freud, IQ testing, and anthropology. These are bracketed by chapter 1, on interviewing, and chapter 7, on doing clinical examinations. Why those two chapters are not consecutive is anyone's guess. Do I need to go into the writing? It fluctuates between platitudes and stupefying detail. The case histories are well-written, but they are generally taken from the DSM-IV Casebook.
I only give it two stars because it does have a lot of information. I'm sure I will never open this book again, and I could really use a synopsis of psychiatry.

I'm a psychiatrist in Brazil and read almost all pages of this book during my posgraduate process.

This book is the golden standard in my country and is recomended by Brazilian Psychiatry Association ( Associação Brasileira de Psiquiatria ) for those who will try the examination board.

At the last year I passed on the examination board of that association and this is due the knowledge acquired on Kaplan & Sadock pages.

It is not intended for non-professionals because is too big and very detailed for who dont know the medical jargon.

This book should be used only for medical residents and psychiatrists already graduated, because medical students will find this book very very detailed and impossible to read during the time available to study on graduation.The graduation is time for general study ( in my opinion is very important to know a little bit of all disciplines at medical college ).

Personaly I find the bigger version Compreensive Textbook of Psychiatry unecessary for the common Psychiatrist except to be a reference book for specific consultations.

On the otherside the tiny version Handbook of Psychiatry is very superficial although better than other handbooks in my country. I own this version too.

My only trouble with this is the outdated Portuguese version released with almost 5 year after english edition.

I'm waiting for the next english version to buy.

Essencial!!!

Professionals and the truely interested will appreciate this book for its extensivly packed-full-of-information chapters. Current DSM criteria and DSM case studies are illustrated throughout. Bulleted outlines, black and white pictures, and colored boxes help break up the endless text. Downfalls: The pages are thin, and the print is smaller than most texts, and the book is very heavy and not one most would chose to tote around. It is detailed with both Pscyh 101 and Ph.D level information that is great for advanced students who REALLY want to learn all there is to know. However, for those just trying to get through a psychopathology course, the book is a bit too extensive and the long chapters are a bit overwhelming Exams off this book need to be created with care and understanding as so much information is contained in the chapters that it is difficult for students to distinquish between whats important for an exam and what is more information than you really need to know at that point. Student have trouble remembering the tiny details and oftentimes miss information that more advanced professionals have already learned and take for granted. Give a study guide to reduce exam anxiety and give multiple exams. Okay text book but not for courses only giving midterm and final exams. You really weekly exams to keep students on track and not overwhelmed. EXCELLENT resouce book personal growth or research.

This book is a synopsis of the Comprehensive textbook of Psychiatry. It is still 1500 pages, but I strongly reccommend this as the core textbook of psychiatry for a medical student to refer to for answers, or for a non-psychiatric physician to own as a knowledgeable reference book to keep at the office. It covers everything the big book does, but it cuts out some of the longer histories and things and gets to the meat of the literature, diagnosis. It still keeps many of the helpful tables as the big book. So I strongly recommend this as your everyday one stop psych reference book.