Doody's Review Service

Reviewer:	Timothy Legg, PhD, PsyD, MSN, PMHNP-BC (Legg Counseling and Consulting Services)

Description
Now in its sixth edition, this comprehensive textbook provides an authoritative and contemporary overview of child and adolescent psychiatry. The previous edition was published in 2017. The text has been substantially revised and updated with increased attention to emerging issues in the field, including diversity, equity, minority stress, racism, transitional-age youth, epidemiology, translational neuroscience, and the environmental contexts in which children and adolescents develop. The book is enhanced by a full-color format, multiple tables, figures, and case illustrations. Each chapter concludes with extensive references for further reading.

Purpose
The purpose of this book is to provide clinicians, trainees, and other mental health professionals with a comprehensive reference for the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents. The current edition reflects an increased appreciation for the environments in which youth live, learn, and develop, as well as the ways in which children and adolescents experience themselves as being perceived, supported, and reflected in the world around them. New and updated material addresses eating disorders, delirium and catatonia, racism and minority stress, transitional-age youth, telepsychiatry, and residential, inpatient, partial hospital, and intensive outpatient treatment environments. These are worthy objectives in consideration of the complexity of contemporary child and adolescent mental healthcare. The text meets these objectives by integrating scientific foundations, clinical assessment, psychopharmacology, psychotherapy, systems of care, and interface areas into a single comprehensive volume.

Audience
This text will be most useful to psychiatrists, psychiatry residents, psychiatric nurse practitioners, physician assistants, psychologists, social workers, professional counselors, and other mental health professionals who work with children and adolescents with psychiatric and behavioral health concerns. It will also be useful to medical students and psychiatric nurse practitioner students seeking a deeper understanding of the psychiatric issues impacting this population. The book meets the needs of its intended audience by providing a broad, clinically useful, and well-organized reference that can be used both for learning and for clinical consultation. Editors and contributors are credible authorities in the field. The contributing authors include psychiatrists, psychologists, researchers, and other experts with academic, clinical, and research experience in child and adolescent mental health.

Features
The book consists of nine sections, each supported by multiple chapters relevant to that section. It begins by orienting readers to the discipline of child and adolescent psychiatry and then progresses through normal development, minority youth, scientific foundations, clinical assessment and nosology, specific disorders and syndromes, treatment, the continuum of care, and interface areas. Chapters are easily digestible and include appropriate subheadings. For instance, chapters are predictably arranged through discussions of definitions, historical components, epidemiology, etiology, onset, course, prognosis, and treatment. The integration of psychopharmacology, psychotherapy, contemporary genetic and epigenetic research, environmental influences, and systems of care complements the diagnostic chapters. The sections on treatment are particularly useful because they provide information on medication management, psychotherapeutic approaches, family therapy, group therapy, behavioral parent training, and strengths-based approaches. The inclusion of chapters addressing emergency services, inpatient and residential treatment, partial hospital and intensive outpatient programs, home-based treatment, community-based services, and telepsychiatry reflects the realities of contemporary clinical practice. The full-color format, tables, figures, and case illustrations help organize complex information and enhance understanding of clinically relevant material. The extensive references at the end of each chapter provide resources for further study. No major shortcomings are apparent, although its size and breadth make it more useful as a comprehensive reference rather than as a brief introductory text.

Assessment
There are multiple textbooks available on the topic of pediatric and adolescent psychiatry, including *Dulcan's Textbook of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 3rd Edition, Dulcan (American Psychiatric Association, 2022), Rutter's Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology, 7th Edition, Thapar et al. (Wiley-Blackwell, 2025), and Kaplan and Sadock's Concise Textbook of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry*, 2nd Edition, Pataki et al. (Wolters Kluwer, 2026). Each of these texts has considerable value, depending on the unique background and specific focus. However, the reviewed title remains particularly useful because of its breadth, timeliness, and integration of scientific foundations with everyday clinical care. The current text has been reconceptualized and updated to reflect contemporary epidemiology, emerging areas of clinical concern, increased attention to diversity and environmental factors, and newer models of treatment delivery. The result is a comprehensive, authoritative, and clinically useful text that clinicians, educators, and trainees seeking a current reference in child and adolescent psychiatry will welcome.