Approach to the Psychiatric Patient: Case-based Essays
This is a fascinating textbook that attempts to approach the clinical and educational challenges of treating psychiatric patients from a truly multidisciplinary perspective using a case-based format. Other publications have used case-based presentations as a stimulus for thoughtful discussion, but none, to my knowledge, have approached this as Dr. Barnhill does. --Carol A. Bernstein, M.D., The American Journal of Psychiatry, August 2009This book is filled with wisdom and insight. Each short essay is written from a well-defined angle. The essays address one of ten composite cases that were well thought out and capture real-world problems. Each case is then addressed by about ten clinical points of view, and each section ends with a helpful list of the summary points. Approach to the Psychiatric Patient provides an educational resource that is valuable not only to trainees but also to seasoned clinicians in any of our disciplines. --John Santopietro, M.D., Psychiatric Services , October 2009Recognizing that our patients are our best teachers, Dr. Barnhill invited many of psychiatry s most gifted clinicians and educators to distill what can be learned from pivotal facets of patients clinical presentations. The net result is a unique, illuminating, and captivating jewel of a book which is destined to be treasured by a trove of serious learners from medical students and first year psychiatry residents to seasoned practitioners. --Stuart C. Yudofsky, M.D., D.C. and Irene Ellwood Professor and Chair, The Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TexasMany textbooks make use of clinical examples to help illustrate a specific learning point such as the diagnostic criteria for major depression or the adverse reaction to an antipsychotic. This book distinguishes itself from prior texts in both the richness of its cases and the ingenuity of its format....Some of the essays are standard textbook fare the differential diagnosis of anxiety or the clinical characteristics of delirium. Other essays offer specific neurobiological (e.g., brain circuitry in psychosis) or psychodynamic (e.g., borderline personality organization) perspectives. Several of the essays focus on oft-overlooked but important topics of clinical care, such as how to manage multiple patients in an emergency department or how to interview an adolescent. Several social perspectives are presented, including writings on the Dominican patient, homelessness, and lesbianism. Essays entitled Love, Creativity and Mental Illness, and Jekyll and Hyde offer the reader unusual but particularly intriguing insights on the patient s case... Readers of Approach to the Psychiatric Patient will gain an appreciation for the myriad perspectives of a psychiatrist. --Matthew N. Goldenberg, M.D., Psychiatry, Fall 2011Barnhill has done us a great favor in creating this unique text. We are indebted to him and to the book's extraordinary group of contributors for sharing their clear and wide-ranging psychiatric and psychoanalytic wisdom with us. I expect the book to be widely used and valued. --Daniel P. Schwartz, MD, Psychoanalytic Quarterly, January 2011