Handbook of Psychiatric Drugs 2011 1st Edition

I had a 2005 book and thought I had lost it, so I decided to buy a new book. I work with a very restricted formulary (all generics) so the 2005 book was adequate for my needs. This is a little book with a lot of information about titration, which I found very useful. It's small, so it fits well in a labcoat pocket.I do work one day per week in private practice, so I decided to buy the new edition hoping that it included some of the newer meds, such as Saphris. Well, I managed to find the old book and compared the two. There is really not that much difference. So if you need information on the latest and greatest, then this is not going to help you much. If I had known that, I might have updated to a later edition, but not bought the 2011 version as the older edition would have been adequate for my primary job.I grade it as 3, because I do like this book, but it loses points for slow updating of information.

Good news: The 2011 Edition is the third version of the book that I have bought over 9 years -- the book has been that good. Year after year, my patients and I have made good use of it whenever we needed succinct information about a psych medication. I always have a well-thumbed copy sitting on my desk ready for use.Bad news: When I compared my new 2011 Edition to my older 2009 Edition, I found nothing new at all. My expectation was that a new edition would have the medications that were "new" since the 2009 Edition and that also were commonly in use. For example, medications such as Pristiq (depression) and Invega (schizophrenia) were not in the 2011 Edition.Suggestion: If you have never purchased the book before, by all means buy it. If you have an older edition, beware.

This little book is worth the price I paid for it. It has pertinent information in a condensed but very usable form. I have it with me in the clinic as a reference and it is one of three references that I use on a regular basis. I had been using the 2006 edition and was glad to see the 2008 edition was available. With so much to know and so little time my thanks to the authors.This is the link to one of the other books that I use on a regular basis: Essential Psychopharmacology: The Prescriber's Guide: Revised and Updated Edition (Essential Psychopharmacology Series) It is more expensive but again worth the money.

I jokingly refer to this little book as my peripheral brain - actually not really jokingly as I near retirement. I use it every week at least once to check on how small a dose a drug comes in that I don't usually prescribe. The content is accurate and the format makes the book a joy to use. With so many new drugs on the market, I wish it was published every year. The PDR print is too small for me and the book has become to large to easily use. The Handbook couldn't be handier. Highly Recommended!

I use the handbook more days than not to help me make decisions about prescribing and to educate my clients about side effects. It is small and easy to carry with me all day. It is missing some drugs like Pristiq and different forms of drugs like no Seroquel XR. But its benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

This is a very helpful resource for my daily clinical reference. However, this "2011" edition leaves out medications such as Seroquel XR, Pristiq, and Invega. A couch potato would have at least heard of the first two, as they have been advertised broadly in television commercials. Hopefully the authors will at least watch a little t.v. before the next edition, or heck, even look at an updated textbook or two.

It's an easy read and concise.I had one major problem: Individual drug side effects are not listed! They list side effects at the start of each group of drugs.For example: side effects of all SSRIs will listed together at the start of the chapter. There are no side effects listed that would distinguish one SSRIs from another.

Very very helpful. The newer version is about $1,000...I settled for the 2008 which reviews showed that that newer version did not include newer medication and that the 2008 version was more then sufficient. And, I think I got this for under $10