Shrink Rap: Three Psychiatrists Explain Their Work

Finally, a book that explains everything you ever wanted to know about psychiatry!

In Shrink Rap, three psychiatrists from different specialties provide frank answers to questions such as:

• What is psychotherapy, how does it work, and why don't all psychiatrists do it?
• When are medications helpful?
• What happens on a psychiatric unit?
• Can Prozac make people suicidal?
• Why do many doctors not like Xanax?
• Why do we have an insanity defense?
• Why do people confess to crimes they didn't commit?

Based on the authors' hugely popular blog and podcast series, this book is for patients and everyone else who is curious about how psychiatrists work. Using compelling patient vignettes, Shrink Rap explains how psychiatrists think about and address the problems they encounter, from the mundane (how much to charge) to the controversial (involuntary hospitalization). The authors face the field's shortcomings head-on, revealing what other doctors may not admit about practicing psychiatry.

Candid and humorous, Shrink Rap gives a closeup view of psychiatry, peering into technology, treatments, and the business of the field. If you've ever wondered how psychiatry really works, let the Shrink Rappers explain.

Dinah Miller, MD, is a psychiatrist in Baltimore, where she is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Annette Hanson, MD, is an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Drs. Miller and Hanson are coauthors of Shrink Rap: Three Psychiatrists Discuss Their Work.

Steven Roy Daviss, M.D., also on the faculty at the University of Maryland, is a hospital-based psychiatrist and medical informatician and is chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Baltimore Washington Medical Center. He is the co-creator of Shrink Rap, a blog by psychiatrists for psychiatrists, and My Three Shrinks, a podcast series about psychiatry.