Massachusetts General Hospital Handbook of General Hospital Psychiatry: Year Book Handbooks Series

Well written and organized book. Some chapters are better than others and there is a definite bias towards the way Mass General does things. But still a good resource for any C/L Psychiatrist.

This one of those great textbooks that you find has the most practical approach and tips you never knew about before and that perhaps many standard medical textbooks are lacking. You need to use it in association with a standard textbook of psychiatry, but for me this book is a great discovery. I am in my first year of psychaitry training and doing hospital psychiatry. I had to do a presentation for medical students on somatoform disorders and found so many practical suggestions and great cases presentations in the book. Somehow this textbook manages to make reading and learning enjoyable and even more importantly, memorable

As a practicing psychiatrist with C-L responsibilities, this book has given me the right tool to deal with many clinical issues in the medical and surgical environment. Despite the exhaustive and elaborate details about common topics, each chapter is quick to digest. Indeed, it reads like a handbook but it has the details of a textbook. I highly recommend it especially that this well-written literature has helped me pass the certification in Psychosomatic Medicine (American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology).

This is simply the best overview of psychiatry currently available. If you treat human beings--or simply want to understand them better,read this book. Why this one? Medical "literature," unfortunately, is often little more than data-mongering. Data can be interesting, but on its own, it will not help you care for patients competently and compassionately. Very rarely, a medical text goes beyond data and information to knowledge, an informed, balanced, comprehensive, learned, and practical perspective. This book is *always* knowledgeable, but often goes one better,achieving (and conveys) that most rare of medical traits, wisdom. Read this book: your patients, and your practice will be better for it.

OK, so it's not ALL of C & L, but it does represent the equivalent of the best review articles of each C & L subject(the way MY hospital teaches the subject.)In fact some of the hints, especially by Dr./Fr. Casem, I have not found anywhere else, and are very practical even at my basic level (I am a psychiatry resident,curently doing my C & L rotation.) My attending was so impressed at my "knowledge" (I'd read the book!), HE went out and bought one, too. If you've an interest in C & L psychiatry, or in the management of "difficult" patients on any hospital service, this book surely tops the list.