Assuming that On-Call Geriatric Psychiatry is a book exclusively for old age psychiatrists significantly underestimates its relevance and scope. The book opposes viewing mental and physical illness as a dichotomy. Instead, it highlights that psychiatric illness cannot be successfully treated without due consideration of physical health.
Emphasis on acute and emergency psychiatric presentations ensures that this is not a book solely for those working in mental health. The assessment and management of delirium, polypharmacy and the psychiatric impact of physical illness are recurrent themes throughout. All physicians, particularly those in acute, geriatric and emergency medicine, would find this a valuable resource. Similarly, chapters on physical examination, common physical complaints and adverse effects of medication are vital reading. The book uses tables effectively, which contributes to it successfully achieving its remit as a handbook. For example, tables on the anticholinergic activity of commonly prescribed medication, and psychotropic medication dose adjustments for renal and liver impairment, are easy to refer to while on-call and during daily clinical practice.
Clinically relevant and highly practical, the book succeeds in imparting expertise gained through a wealth of experience. It successfully blends clinical recommendations and everyday tips with a strong evidence base. Plausible fictional case scenarios are incorporated into the majority of chapters. Boxes are used throughout to highlight clinical recommendations and to summarise key learning points. This approach creates text that is easy to read, thought-provoking and always relevant to clinical practice.
However, the strengths of scope and relevance to many are also the book's weaknesses. This is a concise handbook, not a definitive textbook. Its breadth inevitably leads to a lack of depth. I doubt the reader would significantly change their clinical practice on the basis of this text alone. Each chapter is a whistle-stop tour, covering so much that you are left unsure of which key message to take away. The book is a starting point, highlighting areas for future reading and providing reference lists to support this.
This book promotes itself as the first handbook devoted to on-call geriatric psychiatry. It should be regarded as a handbook for all health professionals involved in the care of older adults.
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