This is a comprehensive, yet practical guide to the care and management of patients with dementia from time of diagnosis to the end of life. It is intended for the increasing number of physicians, nurses, psychologists, social workers, rehabilitation therapists, and long-term care givers responsible for the care of individuals with dementia. In the Third Edition, the authors have increased their emphasis on the use of non-pharmacologic treatments for behavioral and neuropsychiatric symptoms and incorporated the previous edition's chapter on genetics into their discussion of specific diseases that cause dementia. Other sections that have received extensive revision or expansion include those on diagnostic techniques, early prevention, evaluation of clinical needs, and variations between sites of care.

The "Perspectives" approach to psychiatry focuses on four aspects of psychiatric practice and research: disease, dimensional, behavior, and lifestory. In "Systematic Psychiatric Evaluation," Drs. Margaret S. Chisolm and Constantine G. Lyketsos underscore the benefits of this approach, showing how it improves clinicians' abilities to evaluate, diagnose, and treat patients.

Drs. Chisolm and Lyketsos use increasingly complex case histories to help the mental health provider evaluate patients demonstrating symptoms of bipolar disorder, psychosis, suicidal ideation, depression, eating disorders, and cutting, among other conditions. The book also includes an exercise that simulates the "Perspectives" approach side by side with traditional methods, revealing the advantages of a method that engages not one but four points of view.

Featuring a foreword by Drs. Paul R. McHugh and Phillip R. Slavney, the originators of the "Perspectives "approach, this innovative book will be used in psychiatric training programs as well as by practicing mental health clinicians.