Psychiatry Books

Book SynopsisOriginal edition reissued in 2023 with new cover. This is a print on demand title and is not held in stock. The delivery leadtimes will be longer. Have you ever asked yourself what is mental illness? Have you ever wondered what it is like to live with a mental illness? “The Split Mind” enters into the psyche of a person with paranoid schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is an illness that is marked by delusions and disturbed thought. The patient’s state of mind will usually remain in a highly irrational or illusionary state. The patient then loses his sense of the real world, in favour of a world that is based purely on false beliefs. This illness inevitably splits the patient’s focus out of the real world, into a world based on falsehoods and unattested thoughts. According to researchers, schizophrenia is caused by a chemical imbalance. In effect, there are abnormal levels of different neurotransmitters within the patient’s brain. Dopamine may be a key neurotransmitter behind delusional thoughts. This chemical imbalance can be corrected through medications or other varying methods. Nevertheless, scientists, as of yet, have not discovered a permanent cure. The recovery process for the patient will usually be slow because he must take certain steps to ensure that a relapse will never occur. As an illness, schizophrenia may be no different from any other disease. It is a disease that affects the human brain. No patients develop schizophrenia because of any psychological or behavioural problems. It is a genetic disease that is highly treatable, and through perseverance, highly recoverable.

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Book SynopsisDeconstructing ADHD: Mental Disorder or Social Construct? is the third volume of the Ethics International Press Critical Psychology and Critical Psychiatry Series. Understanding the current systems of psychology and psychiatry is profoundly important. So is exploring alternatives. The Critical Psychology and Critical Psychiatry Series presents solicited chapters from international experts on a wide variety of underexplored subjects. This is a series for mental health researchers, teachers, and practitioners, for parents and interested lay readers, and for anyone trying to make sense of anxiety, depression, and other emotional difficulties. Millions of children and their parents worldwide are affected by the current biomedical paradigm by which childhood mental illnesses are addressed. This volume focuses on the mental disorder known as ADHD and examines whether or not it should be considered a mental disorder, and how the observable behaviors that get a child an ADHD label can be remediated without the use of powerful gateway chemicals.

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Book SynopsisThe new Mental Act, amending the 1983 Act, was passed in 2007 and came into operation only this year. The new Mental Capacity Act was passed in 2005 and came into operation in 2007. Together they represent major changes in how mental health professionals should care for their patients, reflecting the shift from institutional to community care that has taken place since 1983. Crucially the new Mental Health Act redefines mental disorder and removes the 'treatability' test. These and other changes have caused great controversy, but now the new legislation is in place there is a need to understand what it means for the individual practitioner when making decisions about the care of individual patients. "Essential Mental Health Law" is the practical guide that will provide this understanding. Neutral on the wrongs and rights of the new legislation, it sets the controversy on one side to help psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, mental health nurses and social workers with the day to day application of the law in clinical practice. Non-specialist lawyers will also find it invaluable.Table of ContentsIntroduction/Overview; 1. Mental disorder, including Personality disorder; 2. Compulsory admission to hospital and renewal; 3. Consent to treatment; 4. Professional roles; 5. Advocacy and the nearest relative; 6. Mental Health Review Tribunals and Hospital Managers; 7. Supervised Community Treatment and Guardianship; 8. After-care; 9. Children and young people; 10. Patients concerned in criminal proceedings or under sentence; 11. Police powers; 12. Risk assessment and management; 13. The Mental Capacity Act 2007; 14. The deprivation of liberty safeguards.

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