Abstract
The context in the United States of America from which this text comes is quite different from that here in Australia. Specialist services are directly accessible to the public without referral from their primary care physician. This text is aimed at the primary care pediatrician, obstetrician and internal medicine specialist as well as the general practitioner. It assumes no specialised psychiatric expertise.
From the Australian viewpoint, this is an excellent resource for the general practitioner with an interest in mental health/illness. It would also be a valuable asset for the emergency physician and hospital-based doctor in training, whatever the specialty. It is detailed yet concise. It attempts to deal with the great breadth of problems seen in primary care. It is full of useful information. If anything, it is a little too full and is certainly not light reading.
The book is problem-based rather than diagnostically based; for most general practitioners who do not work from a strict diagnostic framework this makes the text easy to use.
Problems dealt with range from the common (approach to the anxious patient; approach to the patient with depression; approach to the suicidal patient) to the more obscure (approach to the patient with chronic fatigue syndrome).
Only an American text could have a chapter titled: ‘Practical approaches to the celebrity patient’.
It emphasises that many common physical conditions have a psychological dimension by addressing many other scenarios such as: approach to the patient with headaches; approach to the patient with irritable bowel syndrome.
While the US Pharmacopoeia is different from Australia's, the information provided is current and it is difficult to find areas of drug-based therapeutics not dealt with adequately in the text.
The text is not a manual. It contains no information specifically written for the patient. This text does give some attention to the theoretical basis of psychotherapeutic interventions. However, general practitioners requiring detailed ‘how to’ information relating to motivational interviewing, cognitive and behavioural therapy and narrative therapy would benefit from other publications such as The Management of Mental Disorders available through the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre, Darlinghurst, New South Wales.
The other interesting omission in the text is any chapter on the management of the person with chronic psychoses. General practitioners in Australia manage many people with these conditions (either alone or in shared care arrangements) and require guidelines to assist with that task.
Despite these limitations, this text is excellent value (even at A$94.95) and would be a great asset to any general practitioner with more than a passing interest in psychiatry.