Doody's Review Service

Reviewer:	John Frederick, MD (Trinity Health)

Description
This is a desktop, quick reference guide to psychotropic medications. Each entry for a medication is formatted as a bulleted list, addressing mechanism of action, indications/contraindications, dosing, monitoring, adverse effects, and clinical pearls. It is divided by the major classes of psychotropic medications, but also contains sections focused on specific symptoms and diseases (substance use disorders, agitation, or treatments of medication-induced side effects) and specific populations (child and adolescent, elderly, pregnancy, and breastfeeding).

Purpose
The book's purpose is as a frequently used quick reference. This is a worthy objective; something that can sit next to a workstation and be quickly flipped to when starting a medication. It meets these objectives in spades. Its outline format is easy to read, giving just the information needed to check quickly, but also just enough information to delve deeper if wished. For example, it lists affective flattening as a side effect of most SSRIs, but also mentions the theoretical mechanism behind this, with several references if further investigation is desired.

Audience
The book's primary audience is busy mental health practitioners, trainees, and anyone wanting high-yield information in a quickly digestible format. It meets the needs of practitioners looking for an on-the-spot reference, as it can be quickly referenced multiple times per day, whether checking for a particular medication, or for a particular indication. The authors are credible authorities; each section contains an introduction from a different group of experts, but the editors reviewed the entire handbook in detail to ensure it is based on accurate, evidence-based, peer-reviewed research.

Features
The book contains outline-format summaries of psychotropic medications, divided by their major classes. It also contains sections for specific diseases and conditions (for example, neurocognitive disorders, eating disorders, or acute agitation). There is a section on non-medication options: nutraceuticals and supplements, and interventional psychiatry (i.e., ECT, TMS). The final section focuses on specific populations: children and adolescents, the elderly, and women, pregnancy, and breastfeeding. It is very well organized and easy to read quickly. Some medications that may have multiple indications, can be found in multiple sections, but without repetition or overlap (bupropion can be found in both the antidepressant section and in the substance use disorder section for smoking cessation). Given the quick-reference nature of this handbook, and the multiple uses of some medications (mirtazapine and trazodone are in both the antidepressant section and the hypnotic section), the index is useful for quickly finding a particular drug, or a particular indication.

Assessment
This book is an excellent and practical addition to the field. Its outline format is structured the same way for every drug, so you can quickly find what you need. If deciding between drugs, there are plentiful tables comparing, for example, relevant infant doses in breastmilk. The information is high yield with minimal excess, but just enough to offer a brief justification of the mechanism of action, or why a particular drug's neurotransmitter profile or mechanism of action is theoretically superior, without getting lost in the weeds. The most obvious comparison is *Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology: Prescriber's Guide, 8th Edition, Stahl (Cambridge University Press, 2024), long held as the "bible" for a quick reference. This book is easier to read, with much less repetition, and I suspect this book will quickly become the one I most frequently reference throughout the day. Cafer's Psychopharmacology: Visualize to Memorize 270 Medication Mascots*, Cafer (CaferMed, LLC, 2020) is another common quick reference; the reviewed book has no illustrations or visual mnemonics, but its outline format is much easier to reference.