Whether it is patients' anxiety at being in the physician's office, psychiatric disorders that may impair attention and concentration, skepticism at the effectiveness of medication, or the physician's own busyness, there are varied reasons why patients may not request all of the information they need about a psychiatric medication that is being prescribed or why physicians may not provide it. What Your Patients Need to Know About Psychiatric Medications, Third Edition, remedies this problem by offering clear, accurate, and accessible information on more than 70 medications from all of the major medication classes, from antianxiety medications such as diazepam and lorazepam, to antidepressants such as fluoxetine and sertraline, to stimulants for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder such as dexmethylphenidate and oral methylphenidate. Updated to reflect new medications that have come into the marketplace and changes to the dosing, format, and methods of prescription of existing medications, the book evaluates each medication in eight categories: * General information* Dosing information* Common side effects* Adverse reactions and precautions* Risk in during pregnancy and breast-feeding* Potential drug interactions* Overdose* Treatment summary With its quick-reference format, What Your Patients Need to Know About Psychiatric Medications, Third Edition, is not just an invaluable resource for clinical social workers, clinical psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses and residents, and community and psychiatric pharmacists. It is also a source of accessible, jargon-free guidance for patients, who can leave the physician's office with tangible material about their specific medication, which they can retain and refer to later.

In today's world of litigation and managed care, informed consent in psychiatric practice is more important than ever and providing detailed information about illnesses and medications to patients and their families is vital to informed consent.

The easy-to-read handouts on psychiatric illnesses and medications in the third edition of this immensely popular -- and above all, practical -- volume are key to helping patients and families understand their treatments before giving informed consent. This nuts-and-bolts resource is designed to help both beginning and seasoned clinicians get started and stay organized, providing a single source for the many practical forms, abbreviated rating scales and instruments, and information handouts for patients and their families used in daily clinical practice.

With an updated format of three rather than two sections, this invaluable reference has been revised as follows: - Physician Forms -- Previous forms have been updated and revised, nonapplicable forms have been deleted, and new forms, such as a Medication Log, Clozapine Prescribing Guidelines and Monitoring Form, and Informed Consent to Treatment with Psychotropic Medications, have been added. Most significantly, long versions of rating scales have been replaced by abbreviated versions (e.g., the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale was replaced with the 4-Item Positive Symptom Rating Scale and Brief Negative Symptom Assessment, and the Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale was condensed to a single page), and new rating scales have been added, including the Brief Bipolar Disorder Symptom Scale and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale.

- Information about Psychiatric Illnesses for Patients and Families -- These handouts for patients and their families have been aggressively revised to include current information on new medications, with brand-new handouts about Alzheimer's disease, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and anxiety disorders.

- Information about Medications for Patients and Families -- Extensively revised to consolidate the discussion of medications, or a drug class, from a long and short version (from previous editions) to a single version, these medication handouts have been expanded to include information on the second-generation antipsychotics, agents for treatment of ADHD, cognitive enhancers, recently introduced antidepressants, and the new mood stabilizers.

Medical students, psychiatric residents, and busy clinicians treating patients individually or in groups will appreciate the unsurpassed convenience of this indispensable volume, with its complete set of forms and protocols and comprehensive list of illness and medication handouts for patients and families.

Truly the ultimate in practicality, this edition, like the two previous editions, is packaged with easy-to-use, convenient electronic versions (in PDF files) on CD-ROM, enabling practitioners to print these forms as needed.