Handbook of child psychiatry for primary care

Handbook of child psychiatry for primary care

B. Robertson

New York: Oxford University Press; 1997. 368 pp

ISBN 0-19-571372-9 (paper)

This is a well written, concise book about psychiatric disorders of children and adolescents. It is written for the primary care physician, but it would be useful to medical students and psychiatric residents. The author is a child psychiatrist and head of the department of psychiatry at the University of Cape Town Medical School in Cape Town, South Africa. His many research interests and extensive travel experience make him very well qualified to write this book.

Not only are the various disorders and their management described, but there is also a chapter on assessment and the management of psychosocial problems in general. Parent education and education about illness are emphasized and expensive management approaches (e.g., individual psychotherapy) are mentioned, even though these apply to only a small number of patients. The disorders covered included attention deficit disorder, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, eating and somatoform disorders, dissociative disorders and culture-bound disorders. The latter are specific to South Africa and the chapter is very short but interesting. The substance-related disorders are especially well presented. All chapters are up to date, which is a remarkable achievement for a book with a single author.

The appendices list DSM-IV diagnoses and the Global Assessment of Functioning for children, which are useful, and the bibliography is selective but recent.

There are, however, some contentious statements. For example, I do not think that family therapy needs 2 highly skilled therapists; many programs only have 1 therapist per family. And the assertion that group therapy is “not commonly being offered,” may apply in South Africa, where primary care physicians are not be trained in this modality, but does not apply in North America.

This book is attractively presented and can fit into a jacket pocket (11 cm X 18 cm). Overall, I would strongly recommend this book; it is germane to countries other than the author’s home of South Africa and it is competitively priced.