Books, like people, are born, and, if they survive the trauma of birth, mature in response to a changing environment. This volume is no exception. It imme diately proved its usefulness to psychiatric clinicians upon its publication six years ago, and it is not surprising to find it now entering a new phase of life in a second edition. The many and significant changes that the reader will find herein reflect not only the rapid growth of knowledge in the field of psy chopharmacology but also the editors' wise awareness of the need to incorpo rate that knowledge into clinical practice. Important new sections have been added on the management of elderly patients, on the pharmacological approach to those with temporal lobe epilepsy, and on the use of psychoactive medications during pregnancy. The existing clinical sections have been expanded, and the format has been altered to make the volume more practi cally useful for the harried clinician. Most important of all, the discussions of individual drugs have been carefully revised to update information about those medications that have stood the test of time and to include those newer pharmacological agents that have appeared on the clinical scene since the publication of the first edition. This last task has been significantly aided by the addition of Dr. Alan J. Gelenberg to the family of editors; his clinical and scientific knowledge nicely complements that of Drs. Bassuk and Schoonover, and its influence is evident throughout."

In the eight years since the publication of the second edition of this Guide, psycho phannacotherapy has made many advances not only through the discovery of new medications but by the effective directing of their use to an ever-increasing variety of clinical disorders. These welcome developments are reflected in the concurrent growth and development of the Guide itself, which now enters adulthood with renewed vigor. Under the thoughtful and scholarly leadership of Dr. Alan Gelenberg, the third edition has undergone a significant transformation designed to meet the needs of the modem clinician. The panel of contributors is nearly double that of the former edition with the addition of nine new authors, who have helped in the major revision and rewriting of the text and in a broadening of the topics included. As a conse quence, the reader is assured of a thorough and thoroughly up-to-date coverage of current psychopharmacology that is both accurate and aimed at clinical utility. Having reached maturity, the third edition, while maintaining the lineaments of its earlier versions, is a considerably expanded and strengthened guide to treatment. Although now more encyclopedic in content, the new Practitioner' s Guide to Psy choactive Drugs retains the virtues of a clinical vade mecum that informed its predecessors and have eamed it a place by the patient's bedside for weIl over a decade. One may confidently anticipate its long and flourishing career in the years ahead. John C. Nemiah, M.D."

Suicide is a source of endless disquiet. One of the few fatal consequences of psychiatric illness, it is a threat to patients, and a vexation to therapists that puts clinical judgment to the ultimate test. It arouses countertransference reactions of unusual intensity-helplessness and guilt when the suicide is successful; anxiety and anger when it is used as a manipulative tool. For as Samuel Johnson was aware when he com mented that many "commit suicide, as a passionate man will stab an other," it is not only an escape from hopeless despair but an expression of the most violent rage. To all those who care for suicidal patients, this book will come as a welcome guide. Each of the authors represented here brings a wealth of clinical expe rience to bear on the subject under discussion. The psychological and bi ological determinants of depression are simply and clearly delineated to provide a basis for understanding the processes underlying suicide, for judging its likelihood, and for preventing its occurrence. Detailed de scriptions of the variety of psychological and pharmacological treatments of the suicidal patient are complemented by extensive discussions of the several settings in which such patients will be encountered, whether these be an in-patient unit, an out-patient clinic, a medical ward, an emergency room, or a private office."