The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Third Edition

Abstract

As Mina Dulcan, coeditor of the third edition of The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, writes in her poignant introduction, the late Jerry Wiener, founding editor of this series of textbooks, was “a giant in child psychiatry” (p. xvii) whose contributions to the field ranged across categories—from psychoanalysis to pediatric psychopharmacology, teaching, academic administration, and leadership of major professional organizations. This textbook and its two previous editions (edited by Wiener alone [American Psychiatric Press, 1991 and 1997]) must surely count among his more enduring legacies. The arrangements that he made before his death to ensure its continued publication under experienced editorship stand as testimony to the vision and dignity with which he approached his life’s calling. As in the two previous editions, the principal focus is on the provision of information relevant to clinical practice in a manner that is both “scholarly” and “comprehensive” yet “practical” (p. xvii) and not daunting. This edition has retained the basic components of its previous editions in terms of organization and contributors but integrates the DSM-IVTR (American Psychiatric Association, 2000) in place of the DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994), updates chapters from the previous edition, and introduces several new chapters and authors. The emphasis throughout is on ease of use and clarity of presentation, from the attractive cover with drawings of children to the pleasing typeface and well-organized discussions of specific topics. The chapters new to this edition have been well selected for their timeliness and clinical relevance and include enlightening contributions by Hector Bird on the influence of culture, race, and ethnicity in assessment and treatment; by Robert Schreter on economic issues and the various systems (governmental, employer-sponsored, managed care, educational, social service, juvenile justice) involved in the funding of mental health interventions for children and adolescents; a forward-looking essay by David Mrazek on potential applications of clinical genomic testing; a concise summary by Jon McClellan of the role of structured diagnostic interviews; and an excellent survey by Theodore Petti of the spectrum of milieu treatments in inpatient, partial hospital, and residential settings. As in previous editions, the chapters in the section on assessment are replete with informative examples and insightful recommendations from the experienced clinicians who are their authors, including Stanley Greenspan on infants, Clarice Kestenbaum on children, Robert King and John Schowalter on adolescents, Bennett Leventhal and Martha Crotts on parents, Pirooz Sholevar on families, Robert Hendren and XiaoYan He on the role of laboratory testing and other special tests, and Theodore Shapiro on the integration of information gathered during assessment into meaningful formulations. The bulk of the book is devoted to in-depth discussions of specific disorders, beginning with developmental disorders and continuing through schizophrenia and mood, attention deficit, and other disruptive behavior disorders; anxiety and eating disorders; disorders affecting somatic function; and personality, adjustment, substance abuse and gender identity disorders. These wellwritten chapters by an array of distinguished experts present the DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria, clinical features, differential diagnoses, comorbidities, epidemiology, and biological, psychological, and environmental factors in the etiology and treatment of each condition and are accompanied by extensive and up-to-date reference lists. The reader finishes these chapters with increased understanding of both the essential features and the complexity of each disorder. However, the categories covered and the order in which they are discussed vary somewhat between chapters, and this lack of uniformity leads to some unevenness in coverage. Tables incorporating DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria are provided for many but not all the major disorders represented, and subsections on assessment are omitted from chapters on several disorders, perhaps because of the more general coverage of this topic in the preceding section of the book. Following the chapters on specific disorders, five wellorganized chapters are devoted to “special issues”—physical abuse, sexual abuse, HIV and AIDS, suicide, and forensic psychiatry—that do not fall neatly into DSM-IV-TR diagnostic categories but are essential components in the knowledge base for child and adolescent psychiatrists and other mental health professionals concerned with the care of children. The book does not include a chapter on psychiatric emergencies in children and adolescents, a topic that would appear to have fit well into this section. The concluding section covers major biological and psychosocial treatment modalities. The chapter on psychopharmacology by Joseph Biederman, Thomas Spencer, and Timothy Wilens is divided into discussion of drug classes in pediatric psychiatry and of pharmacotherapy of specific dis-