Dsm-IV Casebook: A Learning Companion to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Dsm-IV)

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Summary: The casebook is a wonderful companion to the DSM IV.
Review: I am a graduate student, and I found this book to be very helpful. It brought the DSMIV to life. Now, I have a full understanding of what to expect. Everyone should buy this book.

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Summary: Essential for Learning to Use the DSM-IV by Heart
Review: I bought a copy of this in my abnormal psych class. I will probably use it again when I study for my boards. It's a great book of vignettes, followed by a discussion of the case. Great practice for making DSM diagnoses. Indices allow studying material by disorder type, or the book can be worked through from the beginning. The cases are randomly ordered.

This all begs the question of the validity of the DSM or the usefulness of labeling people, but if you have to work within that system, this book will help get you up to speed.

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Summary: Clinical Vignettes Galore
Review: The best thing about this book is the huge number of cases of varying kinds that are showcased. The reader just does never get bored of it and the excitement, intrigue and interest in the subject itself its enhanced by a thousandfold.

The book moves along the lines of a number of cases given in no particular order. The reader has the ability to read the case and come up with his own dignosis and then finally comparing it with the discussion presented after. The no particular order of presentation is greatly helpful in that the reader does not know what to expect and has to think and formulate his own differential. Most of the cases are well presented and though not classic like those showcased in books, they have the spice of being real cases. In other words, these are the same features you will be seeing in your everyday practice or psychiatry clerkship. If you wanted a specific case to read about, the index in the back clearly highlights where to find it in more than one different classification.

The biggest letdown of this book is that it fails to point out patient management. It is understandable that this is more of a case presentation book, but knowing how to tailor therapy for each individulaized patients is a great plus. This, however, is not implemented greatly in this book. The authors would mention the use of antidepressants or neuroleptics, but not mention exactly which type or kind of those does the patient respond to. Brief therapeutics and a follow-up discussion is presented most of the time, but that still fails to point out how management of the patient has progressed.

All in all, this book is excellent for learning in a more clinical type setting. Required reading before this book is a well established Psychiatry textbook to identify the diseases in general and after that, you're set to go. This aids the reader to independently identify the problem accordingly and to form an well established differential and final diagnosis. All in all, I strongly recommend this book as an adjunct to a Psychiatry textbook, if not the DSM-IV per se.

Rating:
Summary: The casebook is a wonderful companion to the DSM IV.
Review: The casebook is an excellent companion to the DSM IV. The casebook provides real examples of the disorders presented in the DSM IV and splits them into child/adolescent and adult categories. In addition, each case is discussed in terms of DSM IV diagnosis. As a graduate student in clinical psychology I found this book essential in the study of the DSM IV and abnormal psychology.