{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.02313624678663239, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0, 'mean_word_length': 5.133099824868651, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Book Review: Atypical Antipsychotics

This book is a very readable and comprehensive text and its clarity leads to an enjoyable read. This is quite an achievement given its scope, taking atypical antipsychotics from the neuronal to the clinical between one cover. Although this is a multi-authored text, there is little repetition and a consistency of format, quality and style generally prevails throughout. The authorship differs from many such line-ups in mostly being drawn from mainland Europe. In the clozapine chapter (by Naber et al.), the differences in the prescribing and monitoring of a drug remind us of the various practice environments that exist within the European Union and interesting comparisons are made with practice in North America. The book is broadly divided into a general introduction and a host of chapters within the sections concerning pre-clinical and clinical evaluation of antipsychotics. An interesting introduction to schizophrenia (by Liddle) opens the textbook before the preclinical section. While I am not an expert in the latter area, these chapters provide a comprehensive, fluent well-presented account of topics such as animal/simulation models for schizophrenia (by Ellenbrook et al.), receptor profiles (by Leysen), drug activity (by Ellenbrook et al.) and screening models for antipsychotics (by Arnt). The chapter on new discoveries in the development of the next generation of antipsychotic drugs (by Stahl) is noteworthy, as is the chapter on the atypicals other than clozapine (by Meltzer), where each drug is dealt with separately. A minus for the work is the tendency to focus throughout on the use of the drugs in schizophrenia, and in neglecting to offer guidance on their use in other disorders (e.g. the affective illnesses) and in different age groups (e.g. child and adolescent psychiatry or psychiatry of old age). Similarly, schizophrenia is treated as a single homogenous entity and little effort is made to offer guidance on the schizophrenia spectrum disorders. References throughout are usually plentiful and reasonably current given the publication date. The absence of diagrams and illustrations, despite the nature of the material, is not noticeable because of the strength and clarity of the text. There are few typographical errors. Although pitched at a wide audience, the book is most suitable for the psychopharmacologist who needs an up-to-date reference text detailing progress in the area, and to the clinician who needs a greater understanding of the medications s/he uses. However, it is not a clinical prescribing guide and is perhaps useful to medical students as a reference text rather than a core text. The gap between pharmacology and clinical therapeutics is not easily bridged by many texts and a greater emphasis on therapeutic issues might have beeen appreciated by clinicians. Of particular importance also, a greater focus on adverse drug reactions and toxicology would have been welcomed. The evidence base for the various antipsychotics and the quality of that base is commented upon frequently within the text, but there is little discussion of pharmacoeconomic issues, perhaps to its credit! Finally, all current pharmacological texts should probably consider a declaration of interest by authors. In summary, the writer unreservedly recommends this clear and thorough, yet concise text to clinicians, pharmacists and neuroscientists with an interest in psychopharmacology and to the libraries serving them.