Essentials of Psychiatric Diagnosis, Revised Edition Responding to the Challenge of DSM-5®

Biography

Essentials of Psychiatric Diagnosis is simply the best book I’ve read about how to accurately diagnose your patients. Frances's combination of vast experience, down-in-the-trenches common sense, and informed skepticism is unique. Whether you’re a psychiatrist, psychologist, social worker, nurse, crisis counselor, or any other mental health professional, you should buy this book, read it cover to cover initially, and then keep it in your office to refer back to frequently. I’m glad this book had not been published before I wrote my book on the psychiatric interview, because the competition would have made me choose a different topic!--Daniel J. Carlat, MD, Department of Psychiatry, Tufts University School of Medicine; Founding Editor, The Carlat Psychiatry Report

With his clinical expertise, leadership roles in prior DSM editions, and healthy skepticism about overdiagnosis and excessive medication, Frances has crafted a clinical gem. This clear and concise book describes a sequential assessment process and provides screening questions, easily remembered prototypic descriptions, differential diagnostic considerations, and cautionary notes about diagnostic traps. Frances recognizes the need for a diagnosis to guide intervention, while steering clear of diagnostic reification. All clinicians need this book for frequent reference, and it should be a required text in mental health training programs.--John F. Clarkin, PhD, Personality Disorders Institute, New York Presbyterian Hospital; Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College

This easy-to-read, commonsensical handbook guides mental health clinicians through the thicket of differential diagnosis in psychiatry. Frances--a thoughtful and effective critic of the excesses of DSM-5--shows where diagnosis is valid and essential, and where a premature diagnosis or a diagnostic fad has the potential to hurt patients. Everyone who uses diagnosis in daily practice will benefit from the down-to-earth wisdom of this book.--Joel Paris, MD, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Canada 

A 'must have' for mental health professionals. Frances provides useful, easy-to-understand information about psychiatric diagnosis and coding for clinicians in all mental health disciplines.--K. Dayle Jones, PhD, LMHC, Mental Health Counseling Program, University of Central Florida

Frances demonstrates an unusual ability to communicate the tacit knowledge of an expert into understandable concepts and ideas that will be appreciated by clinicians and students alike. Elegantly simple screening questions precede each disorder and cut through the diagnostic murk. Facilitating patient-centered care, teamwork, and collaboration, this is a comprehensive diagnostic resource for the whole treatment team.--Margaret (Peggy) Halter, PhD, APRN, Editor, Foundations of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing; Associate Dean, Dwight Schar College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Ashland University

This volume should head the list of user-friendly guides to psychiatric diagnosis. Frances draws on his considerable experience and contributions, such as heading the DSM-IV Task Force, to produce a work that will be indispensable for primary care clinicians and all professionals and students in mental health care. The guide contains screening questions, prototypic case descriptions, ICD-9-CM codes (and ICD-10-CM codes where feasible), and specific cautionary statements to reduce diagnostic inflation and raise concerns about aspects of DSM-5. The material is handled with sensitivity and compassion, with the patient's best interests always the central consideration. This book is a welcome arrival at a time when recent trends in diagnosis are increasingly attracting controversy. I will be using this excellent guide in my own work and will recommend it to my students and colleagues.--Adrian Wells, PhD, Division of Clinical Psychology, University of Manchester, United Kingdom

Anyone who brings a critical perspective to psychiatric diagnosis will welcome this book's truly refreshing, reader-friendly approach. Frances, a well-known, respected psychiatrist, offers up what is clearly a lifetime synthesis of wisdom and knowledge on diagnosis. Rejecting the cumbersome detailing of esoteric diagnostic criteria found elsewhere, Frances presents a simpler, consumable structure for readers. Importantly, he includes specific DSM-5-related cautions and caveats. Social workers will appreciate that Frances begins discussion of the diagnostic interview with a section called 'The Relationship Comes First'--and that he argues the client should actually be part of the diagnostic team. This is good stuff.--Kia J. Bentley, PhD, LCSW, School of Social Work, Virginia Commonwealth University

This uncluttered, visually appealing guide will assist all primary care physicians in the care of patients with psychiatric illnesses.--Elizabeth S. White, MD, internist, Settlement Health, New York City

I selected this book as a required text in my master's-level course on the DSM. This is the best companion to the DSM that I have found since I began teaching this course. Many of my students have limited experience with psychiatric assessment and diagnosis, and find the DSM overwhelming and off-putting. Frances provides the perfect counterbalance to DSM-5 orthodoxy. His book is filled with clinical practice wisdom that will benefit students in their day-to-day work with clients. I expect that this will be one of the books that students keep on their shelves well after graduation as they work in the field. Social workers are the largest provider group of mental health care; this user-friendly resource will help them develop the skills they need to accurately assess and diagnose.--Mark J. Brenner, PhD, ACSW, LICSW, Professor and Graduate Program Coordinator, School of Social Work, Bridgewater State University

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