Book Review : Schizophrenia. Treatment, Management, and Rehabilitation, Edited by Alan S. Bellack. Publichsed by Grune and Stratton, Oralando 1984

Abstract

This manual covers very diverse kinds of psychiatric activity in emergency cases and might be useful for non-psychiatrists in different fields of medicine or the health service. The introductory part deals with probems of diagnosis and particularly difficult patients (eg. violent or suicidal) who might be encountered within general practice.Part II describes the emergency evaluation and management of the ambulatory patient: Part III covers the problem of patients with psychiatric symptoms: the fourth Part deals with psychiatric emergencies in general hospital settings and Part V with drug abuse emergencies. The Appendices contain information concerning pharmacotherapy.The construction of the chapters is clear and as short as possible, concentrating information in a way really appropriate to a time of emergency. This may perhaps account for certain simplifications, especially on the theoretical level. However, it is astonishing to find that several chapters contain very little trace of the psychodynamic approach to psychiatric problems. Moreover, psychosomatic medicine is rather unrepresented within the guidelines proposed by this book which would seem to be somewhat inconvenient for general practitioners and (particularaly) for their patients. Psychodynamic or psychological emergency interventions are very difficult to operationalise; nevertheless the necessity of stressing these aspects seems obvious.In summary, we find this to be a good but rather traditionally written manual, clear and practical, but in some parts limited only to the biological and social aspects of psychiatric emergencies. J. AleksandrowiczSchizophrenia. Treatment, Management, and Rehabilitation, Edited by Alan S. Bellack. Publichsed by Grune and Stratton, Oralando 1984. Not in full conformity with the title of the book, the authors dwell on a wider spectrum of problems than treatment, management and rehabilitation. Out of 417 pages of condensed but very clear text, as many as 112 are devoted to such basic matters as Nature and Problem of Schizophrenia, Assessment and Diagnosis, and Prognosis.These initial and very helpful chapters provide a very strong foundation for the problem of therapy and rehabilitation. The next chapter: Sociopolitical Issues Affecting Patients with Chronic Schizophrenia shows a realistic material basis on which therapy is and can be conducted concerning, I think, not only chronic and not only American patients.As regards strictly therapeutic matters, a certain novelty is a chapter on Social Skills Training which deals mainly with a systematic teaching of patients how to function correctly in a society, how to make friends and benefit from support systems.