Personality Disorder By Giles Newton-Howes Oxford University Press. 2014. £19.99 (pb). 80 pp. ISBN 9780199688388

This is the perfect handbook for the busy clinician. It is light and compact, enabling it to travel easily for quick reference. It is composed of 14 chapters written in language that is easy to understand and follow. The text is concise yet comprehensive, managing to stick to the point with inclusion of key knowledge and references. It flows extremely well, starting with background information on epidemiology, the development of personality and the vast concept of what is considered ‘normal personality’. We are then taken through the diagnostic steps of personality disorders as categorised by ICD-10 and DSM-5, backed with excellent case examples that clearly illustrate the clinical picture for each category of personality disorder. Moving on, the reader is shown robust, evidence-based management strategies, including pharmacotherapy and talking therapies. The book ends with some more complex issues surrounding comorbidities in personality disorder, rounded off with a well-rooted conclusion.

As a new psychiatry trainee, I found this handbook immensely helpful in my understanding of a very complex, poorly understood and – ironically – disordered area of psychiatry. Despite its brevity, it manages to take away the harsh stigma attached to patients diagnosed with personality disorders, which sadly still exists among psychiatry professionals. Dr Newton-Howes does this by emphasising the relevance of these conditions within psychiatry as well as stressing the psychological and social destruction that can occur in patients who are poorly managed. He argues that mental health clinicians need to be more proactive with their patients by first educating themselves and then their patients. Most importantly, the book takes away the white handkerchief of defeat that clinicians tend to hold up when faced with patients with personality disorder, and replaces it with effective tools to understand personality disorders and manage patients confidently and appropriately. Incorporating this in 66 pages makes this informative book by Dr Newton-Howes a must-have for every clinician.