Psychopharmacology

Psychopharmacology: The Third Generation of Progress

Edited by Herbert Y. Meltzer

New York, Raven Press, 1987. 1,824 pp.

The utility and desirability of Psychopharmacology: The Third Generation of Progress is attested to by the fact that it was the first book to be stolen from our newly established psychiatry library. This book is the third in a series, updated every decade since 1967, from the preeminent biological psychiatry organization in the United States, the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP). This comprehensive review of clinical neuroscience was “trimmed” to 184 chapters by 350 authors and amounts to more than 1,800 pages.

For a book that is so large and cumbersome, relevant information on most topics in neuroscience is surprisingly accessible. Topics are presented as clusters of individual reviews covering specific interest areas rather than as a single comprehensive review chapter. Thus, an experienced clinician or researcher seeking an update on a specific topic, such as maintenance pharmacotherapy for schizophrenia, is likely to find a brief, focused review. In contrast, readers with limited psychiatry or neuroscience backgrounds may find that the magnitude of the text and its somewhat fragmented presentation style make information more difficult to integrate. For example, in order to learn about schizophrenia, the novice neuropsychiatrist must read two introductory chapters, at least four preclinical chapters, and 24 clinical chapters from over thirty authors. Although this mountain of information would appear to be daunting, I have found that the chapters are quite popular as review materials among second-year psychiatry residents.

Despite the excitement and interest that a book such as this generates, it suffers from some flaws that are characteristic of multi-authored texts. Some parts of the book, such as the section on neuroanatomic and neurochemical mechanisms, contain several excellent chapters but lack a central focus or clearly apparent organization. The scope of reviewed materials also varies widely between chapters. As an illustration of this problem, “animal models in psychiatry” is included in the section on “Biology of Depression,” a review of animal models is absent from the section on “Biology of Schizophrenia,” and two of the four chapters in the “Biology of Anxiety” section review animal models. Also, the quality of the chapters varies noticeably in this book. In contrast to many chapters written with depth and clarity, others appear sketchy or even poorly written.

Although generally skeptical about the utility of purchasing expensive scientific books that rapidly become outdated, I wanted to own this text in order to insure continued access to the many useful reviews that it contains. In addition, it is one of very few books that I recommend to psychiatry residents interested in clinical neuroscience. Despite its flaws, Psychopharmacology: The Third Generation of Progress is clearly an important contribution to neuroscience and psychiatry.