Publisher's Synopsis
Mental health is an important public health issue. With the changing healthcare environment, 60 per cent of patients are identified and receive treatment in the primary care setting.;This handbook was developed to offer the busy primary care physician with practical strategies for screening and treating patients who have psychiatric disorders. It covers: the continually growing number of drugs available for treatment of mental disorders; an overview of the epidemiology, pathopsychology, presentation, diagnostic criteria, and screening tests for common psychiatric disorders, mood disorders, insomnia, somatization disorder, substance use disorder, eating disorders, dementia, and schizophrenia; treatment algorithms and other step-by-step approaches to direct the physician who is treating patients with mental disorders including drug dosages, schedules, schedules, routes of administration; basic pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, drug interaction and safety concerns, and practical dosing issues for all classes of drugs used to treat mental disorders; and guidelines for primary care physicians on when to refer patients to psychiatrist colleagues.
