Essential Psychopharmacology: Neuroscientific Basis and Practical Applications

Essential Psychopharmacology: Neuroscientific Basis and Practical Applications

SM Stahl

New York: Cambridge University Press; 1996. 379 p

If you, like many others, admired Stephen Stahl’s beautiful slides on neuropharmacology during one of his many lectures at psychiatric meetings, you can now have his graphics in 1 book, all 300 of them. His charming drawings intelligently reduce very technical neuroscience concepts to very comprehensible illustrations.

The book will appeal to a wide readership. It provides an easily readable introduction to neurobiological concepts for the novice, and for the practicing psychiatrist, it offers a quick review of the principles. Never before have I had such an enjoyable refresher course on neuropsychopharmacology. The book will also appeal to educators, whether they are teaching nurses, medical students, residents, or physicians taking continuing medical education.

The text is remarkably lucid, instructive, and entertaining, and yet it remains an authoritative representation of the field. In the rapidly expanding arena of neurosciences, where it is so difficult to keep up with the explosion of knowledge, the book is commanding yet easy to assimilate. The text will certainly prepare the reader well for dealing with more complex professional literature. The reader can sense that the material has been tested in many lectures and polished for clarity.

One particularly delightful aspect of the book is its attempt to apply the principles of programmed learning. Thus it is possible to acquire a good overview of the material by 1 st going through the book from beginning to end and reviewing only the color graphics and the corresponding legends. In the 2nd reading, the graphics may be reviewed while the text is read in detail. Finally, a rapid review of the graphics can serve ‘ as a solid refresher.

The text is accompanied by a wealth of high-quality color graphics, simplified diagrams, and funny cartoons. This whimsical approach serves the author very well when dealing 1 with the neuroscience issues, although some of his clinical points come across as less happy that way. In the clinical parts, there are a few inaccuracies, and some oversimplifications went, in my opinion, a bit too far (for example, “virtually every known antidepressant has the same response rate namely . . . 67%”; or suggestions of the genetic basis of posttraumatic stress disorder). If you are a visual learner and are looking for an excellent book on the basic neuropharmacology of psychotropic drugs, I suggest you buy this one.