PDR Drug Guide for Mental Health Professionals

The growing use of psychotropic drugs has brought new opportunities and fresh challenges to the mental health care professional. That's why this PDR® Drug Guide for Mental Health Professionals™ was created: It will help you understand the beneficial effects—and the dangerous side effects—of today's potent psychotherapeutic medications. Its focus is psychotropic drugs—over 70 common ones are profiled by brand name. When you need to know—you need this guide.

Expanded Scope Includes Most Common Prescription Drugs
Because it covers the emotional and psychological side effects of all the most commonly used prescription drugs—and details how they can interact with psychotropic medications—this PDR guide can suggest potential solutions to a broad range of unexplained clinical problems. A global view of the patient's total medication profile often yields a simple solution to seemingly intractable dilemmas.

Written and Formatted for Easy Access
Not a textbook, this guide is designed for ready reference, providing easy-to-understand information quickly and clearly. A straightforward non-technical writing style ensures quick comprehension. Combined with a logical and consistent design format, this guide's dictionary-style organization makes every lookup fast and simple.

Detailed profiles of over 70 common psychotropic drugs
· organized by brand name
· written in a non-technical style
· gives proper usage and administration of each drug
· includes common side effects, special warnings, and contraindications

Includes Other Vital Drug Information
· describes over 1,000 common prescription drugs and their approved uses
· lists psychological side effects of common prescription drugs
· includes key interactions with psychotropic drugs

Comprehensive and Authoritative
There's no other reference like the new PDR Drug Guide for Mental Health Professionals. Here's what makes it so useful:
· Psychotropic Drug Profiles by Brand Name
· Interactions with Psychotropic Drugs
· Approved Uses of Common Prescription Drugs
· Psychological Side Effects of Common Prescription Drugs
· Psychotropic Herbs and Supplements
· Prescription Drugs with Potential for Abuse

The mental health field has changed enormously during the past half-century. Today fewer than one of every ten clinicians is a psychiatrist. In contrast to the 35,000 physicians currently in psychiatric practice in the United States, there are 70,000 psychologists, nearly 200,000 social workers, and 50,000 marriage and family therapists. It is for all these other clinicians that the PDR Drug Guide for Mental Health Professionals has been designed. Although they do not actually prescribe medications, these professionals often play a key collaborative role in medication decisions, and an increasing percentage of their psychotherapy clients are also taking psychotropic drugs. Clearly an effective drug guide is a necessity for today s mental health practitioner and this book does an outstanding job of addressing this long-overlooked need.

In the past, the mental health field was dominated by narrow schools of thought and heated conflicts. Clients were forced to choose between psychotherapy and medications, between psychologists and psychiatrists, between outpatient resources and inpatient care. Today, although the field is still marked by wide differences of opinion, approach, and professional training, there is a growing movement toward collaboration and integration. Practitioners have been pushed in this direction sometimes kicking and screaming by the results of clinical research.

Studies have revealed, for example, that psychotherapy and medication are each of great help to people suffering from depression. About two-thirds of such individuals are able to overcome their disorder when they receive cognitive, interpersonal, or certain other types of psychotherapy; a similar percentage are helped by antidepressant drug therapy; and, according to some research, an even higher percentage may be helped by a combination of the two approaches. A parallel story has unfolded in the treatments of panic, obsessive-compulsive, and several other disorders. Even treatments for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder where medication typically plays a dominant role are, according to research, greatly enhanced by the addition of psychotherapy, community interventions, and/or case management.

Just as medications and psychotherapy are often used together in the clinical field today, it is now common for psychiatrists and other mental health professionals to work side by side. In mental hospitals, clinics, and counseling centers, patients often work with a team of professionals, receiving medication from one, therapy from another, and, in some cases, case management from a third. Similarly, in private practice, clients psychotherapy sessions with psychologists, social workers, or other professionals are often supplemented by visits to psychiatrists (also referred to as "psychopharmacologists" in this context) who focus exclusively on their medication needs. In all such instances, mental health professionals play a key role in drug therapy whether by referring the client to the best psychopharmacologist, by discussing the case and the impact of medication with the psychopharmacologist, or by watching for the effects of medication both wanted and unwanted over the course of psychotherapy. It is also worth noting that this role may soon become even more prominent, since some state legislatures are now deciding whether to license psychologists to prescribe psychotropic drugs.

All these changes in the clinical field point in the same direction: mental health professionals today must be as knowledgeable as possible about psychotropic drugs. A key resource in the acquisition and application of this knowledge is an effective drug reference, and, as I noted earlier, the PDR Drug Guide for Mental Health Professionals addresses this need extraordinarily well. There are a number of very useful features in this book. Let me cite several that I find particularly valuable.

First, the book is structured specifically to meet the needs of clinicians in practice. It readily provides complete profiles of each psychotropic drug, including such information as when and when not to use the drug, undesired effects, interactions with foods and other drugs, and other special precautions and concerns. One section of the book is even organized by side effect rather than drug name, to help clinicians better determine whether a new symptom is drug-related or not.

Second, the book reaches beyond psychotropic drugs to include information on psychotropic herbs and supplements, which have become such an important force in our society. Similarly it includes descriptions of the many other common prescription drugs that a patient may be taking along with psychotropic medication.

Third, the book is written without medical jargon in a manner that is clear, yet detailed and informative. This is not a cut-and-paste version of the PDR. It was obviously written especially for mental health professionals taking into consideration their background as well as their clinical needs.

Whenever I am asked to write a foreword for a book, my initial reaction is one of extreme caution and even reluctance. A foreword is, after all, perceived by some as an implicit endorsement, and is not something to be undertaken lightly. Obviously, I have been impressed by this book and by the importance of such a reference work given the current climate in the field of mental health care. In addition to the features that I have already mentioned, two other aspects of this book finally won me over and convinced me to write the foreword. One, the book emphasizes the limitations of each drug every bit as much as its potential strengths. It is not a "pro-drug" book. Instead, it simply seeks to inform professionals, even-handedly and authoritatively. Two, the book has a good feel for the appropriate roles of both psychotherapy and drug therapy in treatment today. For example, in the discussion of a drug for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, the book states, "It is important to remember that the drug is only part of the overall management of ADHD, and that the doctor should also recommend counseling or other therapy." That is my kind of guide book balanced, evidence-based, and genuinely informative. Ronald J. Comer, Ph.D.
Director of Clinical Psychology Studies
Department of Psychology, Princeton University