Principles of Neuropsychopharmacology

Although I have never used this book in a formal course, I found this book to be valuable. The book's thorough treatment of neuropsychopharmacology is exemplary. Although this book was written for an advance audience of graduate students and scientists alike, I found the material to be approachable for anyone who has a rudimentary background in the life sciences and a deep interest in neuropsychopharmacology. Nevertheless, some sections of the book are quite dense with information that several rereads may be necessary regardless of expertise. Overall, this book is a must-have for anyone looking to seriously establish for themselves a strong foundation in either neurochemistry or psychopharmacology.

This book contains a very thorough and in-depth review of every currently known neural transmitter system including synthesis, release, storage, receptors and pharmacology thereof, localization in the brain and relevance to clinical uses. Also included is a review of most drug classes and their interactions with various neurotransmitter systems. The figures in the book are particularly good, of above average detail and easy to understand. The reference section of cited papers is very useful for finding original research articles and data. I found the book to be a great resource for such diverse topics as neuroanatomy, pharmacology, neurotransmitters, action of drugs of abuse and mechanisms of schizophrenia and depression. The amount of information can be overwhelming and a few chapters are not as well-organized as could be, but the detailed glossary provides a very effective means of searching for almost any topic, or even specific chemicals mentioned in the book.

This book has received a highly favorable review by Jack Cooper in Trends in Neurosciences, vol. 20, number 11, page 544. I am looking forward to reading it myself.