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doctorwithoutboundaries's review against another edition
5.0
Someone once said to me: "I often wonder if I decided to become a surgeon because I couldn't admit to myself that what I really wanted to study was anatomy." The anatomist would have neither fame nor glory, whereas the surgeon would have both in spades. Since then I've been wishing that I'd had the guts to admit to myself that pharmacology is where my heart lies. So when it comes to this book, I'm biased.
Studying medicine has meant racking up a huge number of textbooks, to none of which I ever did any justice, usually only reading the bits that Indian examiners love to ask—until now: I read this book cover-to-cover. It probably sounds like a cliché to say this, but this made learning so much fun. Like every pharmacology book, it's not going to be easy to remember, but it does its absolute best to help you do so, unlike others.
As the authors mention in their preface, the principle behind the organisation of the book is programmed learning, involving elements of interaction and repetition. So if the text often seems repetitive, that's the point. It's drilling into you. The accompanying diagrams aptly encapsulate most of what is discussed in the text, such that merely flipping through all the images and tables covers the entire content, serving as sufficient revision.
The illustrations themselves deserve all of the stars. They simplify complicated and amorphous matter with the systematic use of icons. Psychopharmacology, after all, is a theoretical branch and the authors are never careless enough to drop their "hypothetically"s. All of that translates to it being overly conceptual and, at times, hard to visualise, which this book does so nicely for us.
Moreover, the illustrations are unique. I never thought I'd be calling a textbook "cute", but Nancy Muntner has done a fantastic job converting Dr. Stahl's drawings into memorable visual aids that imprint themselves on your brain with their unusual, often hilarious and adorable style (think cartoon aliens inside a man's head to depict paranoid psychosis). If more textbooks were as engaging as this, I would've been more enthusiastic about studying.
Studying medicine has meant racking up a huge number of textbooks, to none of which I ever did any justice, usually only reading the bits that Indian examiners love to ask—until now: I read this book cover-to-cover. It probably sounds like a cliché to say this, but this made learning so much fun. Like every pharmacology book, it's not going to be easy to remember, but it does its absolute best to help you do so, unlike others.
As the authors mention in their preface, the principle behind the organisation of the book is programmed learning, involving elements of interaction and repetition. So if the text often seems repetitive, that's the point. It's drilling into you. The accompanying diagrams aptly encapsulate most of what is discussed in the text, such that merely flipping through all the images and tables covers the entire content, serving as sufficient revision.
The illustrations themselves deserve all of the stars. They simplify complicated and amorphous matter with the systematic use of icons. Psychopharmacology, after all, is a theoretical branch and the authors are never careless enough to drop their "hypothetically"s. All of that translates to it being overly conceptual and, at times, hard to visualise, which this book does so nicely for us.
Moreover, the illustrations are unique. I never thought I'd be calling a textbook "cute", but Nancy Muntner has done a fantastic job converting Dr. Stahl's drawings into memorable visual aids that imprint themselves on your brain with their unusual, often hilarious and adorable style (think cartoon aliens inside a man's head to depict paranoid psychosis). If more textbooks were as engaging as this, I would've been more enthusiastic about studying.
rebyz92's review against another edition
4.0
it underestimates the effects on the brain that cognitive behavioural therapy has. other than that it should be compulsory to read for students of clinical psychology!
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