Prescriber's Guide: Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology, 8th Edition Doody's Expert Review Review Questionnaire ISBN: 9781009464758 ISBN-10: 1009464752 Copyright: 2024 Edition: 8th Author: Stahl, Stephen M. Doody's Expert Review    Score: 95 Doody's Star Rating™ and Doody's Expert Review provide by Doody Enterprises, Inc. Reviewer: Aaron Plattner,  MD  (Network180 ) Description This seventh edition book provides an updated guide of the various medications available for the treatment of psychiatric conditions. Purpose The author strives to provide an evidence-based guide for prescribers to remain knowledgeable about psychiatric medications. Given the ever-growing field of psychopharmacology, this updated guide is a helpful resource. As with the different textbooks in the Stahl series, this book meets its objective through the exceptional quality of information presented. Audience The book is aimed at all prescribers in the field of mental health. Because there is a wide variety of prescribers in different fields, this book can be helpful and applicable to a broad audience. Dr. Stahl has established himself as a credible authority through his multiple textbooks. Features This book begins with a brief introduction and a list of self-evident icons. It is made up of 158 "chapters." Each one reviews a different medication. Each medication starts by reviewing the therapeutics of the medication including names, reasons the medication is prescribed, mechanism of action, time frame of hopeful improvements of symptoms, augmentation strategies of the medication, and laboratory tests that should be considered. The second section reviews potential side effects followed by a section on dosing considerations such as titration and tapering schedules, pharmacokinetics, drug interactions, and precautions. The next section reviews considerations of various populations followed by pharmacological insights such as potential advantages and disadvantages of the medication. Each chapter ends with further suggested reading. The book ends with indexes of drug names, uses, and classes, as well as a list of abbreviations. Assessment New psychiatric medications are emerging regularly, which should be celebrated and encouraged as we strive to minimize the pain of psychiatric conditions. However, it can be difficult to remember established medications while keeping up with these new medications. This guide is a helpful, efficient resource for both learning about newer medications and reminding practitioners about established ones. While the FDA package insert of medications is a more complete medication review, it can be cumbersome to sort through and does not provide what Dr. Stahl refers to as "The Art of Psychopharmacology," providing practical information that aids decision-making in ways the FDA Package Insert does not. My only caution would be for readers to have read through a psychopharmacological textbook before using this guide, as the guide will be more helpful if readers understand the background information. As more medications are produced, further editions will need to be published. Review Questionnaire Range Question Score 1-10 Are the author's objectives met? 10 1-10 Rate the worthiness of those objectives. 10 1-5 Is this written at an appropriate level? 5 1-5 Is there significant duplication? (1=significant, 5=insignificant) 5 1-5 Are there significant omissions? (1=significant, 5=insignificant) 4 1-5 Rate the authority of the authors. 5 1-5 Are there sufficient illustrations? 5 1-5 Rate the pedagogic value of the illustrations. 5 1-5 Rate the print quality of the illustrations. 5 1-5 Are there sufficient references? 3 1-5 Rate the currency of the references. 4 1-5 Rate the pertinence of the references. 4 1-5 Rate the helpfulness of the index. 5 1-5 If important in this specialty, rate the physical appearance of the book N/A 1-10 Is this a worthwhile contribution to the field? 10 1-10 If this is a 2nd or later edition, is this new edition needed? 10 ©2025 Doody Enterprises, Inc.