Descriptive Psychopathology: The Signs and Symptoms of Behavioral Disorders

by Michael Alan Taylor, Nutan Atre Vaidya

In order to accurately describe and diagnose psychiatric illness, practitioners require in-depth knowledge of the signs and symptoms of behavioral disorders. Descriptive Psychopathology provides a broad review of the psychopathology of psychiatric illness, beyond the limitations of the DSM and ICD criteria. Beginning with a discussion of the background to psychiatric classification, the authors explore the problems and limitations of current diagnostic systems. The following chapters then present the principles of psychiatric examination and diagnosis, described with accompanying patient vignettes and summary tables, and related to different diagnostic concerns. A thought-provoking conclusion proposes a restructuring of psychiatric classification based on the psychopathology literature and its validating data. Written for psychiatry and neurology residents, as well as clinical psychologists, it is invaluable to anyone who accepts the responsibility for the care of patients with behavioral syndromes.

Genres: Psychology, Psychiatry

498 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 2008

Reviews

[Victor Oanca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really appreciated this work for its attempt at correlating phenomenology, neurology and psychiatry.
I believe it has has succeded in this respect and it was an enjoyable read.
However, I would have appreciated dedicated chapters towards childhood-onset disorders and not the odd mention from time to time.

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent resource for any mental health worker, this textbook goes through the different areas of the mental status exam and details the possible abnormalities in each, some of the mechanisms driving those changes and the disorders they are usually found in. It is very well researched and generally well written. Perhaps it is the nature of the topic but some sections are very difficult to extract usable clinical information from- for example catatonia; they list so many possible manifestations of it and so many disorders it can appear in it is hard to know how to detect or use it in a meaningful way. Nonetheless this text been one of the greatest discoveries of my psychiatry training and I recommend it to any serious student on psychopathology