Preface

Summary

These books are designed to be fun. All concepts are illustrated by full-color images. The text can be used as a supplement to figures, images, and tables. The visual learner will find that this book makes psychopharmacology concepts easy to master, while the non-visual learner may enjoy a shortened text version of complex psychopharmacology concepts. Each chapter builds upon previous chapters, synthesizing information from basic biology and diagnostics to building treatment plans and dealing with complications and comorbidities.

Novices may want to approach this Pocketbook by first looking through all the graphics, gaining a feel for the visual vocabulary on which our psychopharmacology concepts rely. After this once-over glance, we suggest going back through the book to incorporate the images with text from figure legends. Learning from visual concepts and textual supplements should reinforce one another, providing you with solid conceptual understanding at each step along the way.

Readers more familiar with these topics should find that going back and forth between images and text provides an interaction with which to vividly conceptualize complex psychopharmacology. You may find yourself using this book frequently to refresh your psychopharmacological knowledge. And you will hopefully refer your colleagues to this desk reference.

This Pocketbook is intended as a conceptual overview of different topics; we provide you with a visual-based language to incorporate the rules of psychopharmacology at the sacrifice of discussing the exceptions to these rules. A “Suggested Readings” section at the end of this Pocketbook gives you a good start for more in-depth learning about particular concepts presented here.

When you come across an abbreviation or figure you don't understand, you can refer to the “Visual Vocabulary” in the front and “Abbreviations” legend in the back. After referring to these several times you will begin to develop proficiency in the visual vocabulary of psychopharmacology. Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology, 3rd Edition, and Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology: The Prescriber's Guide, 3rd Edition, can be helpful supplementary tools for more in-depth information on particular topics in this Pocketbook. Now you can also search topics in psychopharmacology on the Neuroscience Education Institute's website (www.neiglobal.com) for lectures, courses, slides, and related articles.