Diagnosing and Treating Mental Illness

Diagnosing and Treating Mental Illness helps laypersons understand all major forms of mental illness including how they are actually experienced by patients, and provides a complete compendium of treatments for all of them that actually work.

About the Author :
John V. Wylie received a B.A. from Yale University, an M.D. from Columbia University College of Physician and Surgeons, and then obtained his psychiatric training at Georgetown University Hospital, with which he continued to be associated on the clinical teaching faculty. He practiced general psychiatry in Washington, D.C. where he was on the medical staff at Sibley Memorial Hospital serving as chairman of the Department of Psychiatry from 1988 to 1995. Now retired, he lives and writes in Olney, Maryland.

Review :
Editorial Review--Library Journal vol. 134 iss. 16 p. 92 (c) 10/01/2009 "Wylie (clinical psychiatry, Georgetown Univ.) shares his 35-plus years of experience as a clinical psychiatrist in this new guidebook that helps diagnose common mental health conditions and offers guidelines for health-care workers for treatment or referral to mental health experts. Wylie's focus is to distinguish normal emotional problems experienced by healthy people from psychiatric conditions that should be regarded as medical sicknesses and to provide a concise compilation of modern treatments for mental illnesses, including antipsychotic medications; his goal is to aid the family practice physician in deciding on appropriate referrals for psychiatric or psychotherapeutic therapy. The mental illnesses covered include anxiety, depression, pathological anger, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, addiction, compulsion, and impulse control, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and dementia.VERDICT Offering an excellent foundation of basic knowledge on the most common mental illnesses, this will be of some value to erudite lay readers, but the succinct, highly clinical chapters are more relevant for primary health-care providers." --Dale Farris, Groves, TX Editorial Review--Reviewer: Vincent F Carr, DO, MSA, FACC, FACP (Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences) "Description: " This is a simple approach to mental illness developed by an experienced academic psychiatrist. Dr. Wylie looks back over his 35 years of practice and presents a common-sense retrospective evaluation of the changes in psychiatry during that time. It is an extraordinary book, removing the social politics and focusing on what works. "Purpose: " This is a book that can help orient medical students and simplify and refresh experienced attendings in psychiatry. The author offers plain language explanations and encourages primary care practitioners to accept more responsibility for the psychiatric care of patients. He makes an important differentiation, and injects his common sense, between the words "clients" and "patients," which has irritated many physicians-- a nice, welcome touch. "Audience: " Anyone in healthcare-- medical students, residents, attendings, nurses, and paraprofessionals--can benefit from this book. It is well written and helps define which professions should be caring for which patients and how to work together. "Features: " The book is divided into generalized chapters, but the division is logistical only, as the author's thought process carries the discussion along, integrating concepts very nicely among the chapters. "Assessment: " This is a valuable book, grounded in common sense. Everyone in healthcare should read it. The lessons of this experienced academician are well worth the time. --Vincent F Carr