The Therapist's Guide to Psychopharmacology Working with Patients, Families, and Physicians to Optimize Care

Now in a revised and updated third edition, this noted practitioner guide and text incorporates the latest knowledge about psychopharmacology and collaborative care. Therapists and counselors learn when and how to make medication referrals and how to address patients' questions about drug benefits, side effects, safety, and more. Organized around frequently encountered mental health disorders, the book explains how medications work (including what they can and cannot accomplish). Strategies for collaborating successfully with patients, their family members, and prescribers are discussed in detail. Written for optimal practical utility, the text features case examples, sample referral letters, checklists, and a glossary.
 
New to This Edition
*Chapter on the therapeutic relationship.
*New separate chapter on bipolar disorder.
*Expanded discussions of distinguishing psychiatric illness from normal distress, optimizing collaboration with psychiatrists, how medications work in the brain, treatment of chronic pain, and more.
*Additional case vignettes and psychopharmacology principles.

JoEllen Patterson, PhD, LMFT, is Professor in the Marital and Family Therapy Program at the University of San Diego. She is also Associate Clinical Professor of Family Medicine, Global Health, and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine. Dr. Patterson has published five books that have been translated into multiple languages, and has served on the editorial boards for journals including Families, Systems, and Health; Family Process; and the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy. Dr. Patterson received a Rotary International Scholarship to work at Cambridge University, as well as three Fulbright Awards to work in Norway, Hong Kong, and New Zealand. Her global work includes initiatives in Jordan and Ecuador.
 
James L. Griffith, MD, is the Leon M. Yochelson Professor and Chair in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the George Washington University (GWU) School of Medicine and Health Sciences. As a psychiatric educator, Dr. Griffith developed GWU psychiatry residency training distinguished for its excellence in cultural psychiatry, global mental health, and psychosocial care for medically ill patients. Dually trained in psychiatry and neurology, Dr. Griffith for three decades has taught psychiatry residents a curriculum that integrates humanistic psychiatry with psychopharmacology, now published in Academic Psychiatry as a model curriculum for psychiatry residencies.
 
Todd M. Edwards, PhD, LMFT, is Professor in the Marital and Family Therapy Program at the University of San Diego. He is also Voluntary Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego, and Visiting Professor at NOVA University in Lisbon, Portugal. Dr. Edwards is a Clinical Member and Approved Supervisor in the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and an editorial board member for the American Journal of Family Therapy and the Journal of Family Psychotherapy.

I. The Mind–Body Connection
1. How the Brain Works: A Basic Sketch
2. How Psychotropic Drugs Work
II. Psychiatric Disorders and Their Treatment
3. Depression
4. Bipolar Disorder
5. Anxiety Disorders
6. Schizophrenia and Other Psychoses
7. Cognitive Disorders
8. Alcoholism and Substance Abuse
9. Physical Health and Illness
10. Special Populations
III. Creative Collaboration
11. The Therapeutic Relationship
12. Effective Referrals
13. Sharing Care
14. Strengthening Bonds
Glossary
References
Index