Spectrum of Psychotic Disorders

The spectrum of psychotic disorders encompasses as many as 25 different etiologies, ranging from the primary psychoses through those secondary to medical conditions, drugs and medications, and sensory impairments. This book provides a one-stop, comprehensive review of these disorders and gives quick comparisons for diagnostic decision-making to help with difficult differential diagnoses. Every chapter is uniformly structured to show comparisons between each disorder of presentation, course, and underlying neuropathology. Evidence for each etiology is also rated, indicating the confidence level the reader can place in the current findings. The international team of authors also examines data supporting a unitary neurobiological model of psychosis and the hypothesis that psychosis is a neurobiological syndrome similar to aphasia or apraxia. This book represents a paradigm shift in understanding, classifying and diagnosing these disorders, providing directions for future research and treatment. It will be of great interest to psychiatrists and neuroscientists alike.

Review of the hardback: 'Why is any of this important? It goes to the heart of questions about diagnosis and treatment … Even though my training years are far behind me, it was very interesting to learn about what we now know, and still don't know, about the brain and illness.' Psychiatric Services, Review of the hardback: 'This is a well written, careful and inclusive piece of work which examines the extensive spectrum of psychotic disorders … this is an excellent book which I shall be keeping in my library and will, I suspect, refer to it quite often in the future.' Human Psychopharmacology, Review of the hardback: 'The text is clearly laid out and in general has an engaging style. … The authors, and indeed the editors, have achieved consistency by providing a neat summary of the strength of the evidence upon which the authors have synthesised the necessary data. … The book is ambitious but given the difficulty of the task of the authors have set themselves, it is also an accomplished effort. The editors are to be applauded from difficult topics such as schizophreniform disorder and delusional and for recruiting world authorities as authors. … This is an accurate and genuinely modest appraisal of a book that will clearly benefit all those that deal with psychosis in any clinical or academic context.' Acta Neuropsychiatrica, Review of the hardback: 'The major strength of this book is that a wide variety of clinical scenarios involving psychosis are brought together within a single volume. … The book is nicely presented and provides an accessible overview of relevant research. A nice innovation is the use of a grading system (A–D) to indicate the level of evidence for the issues discussed … In summary this book provides useful information in a helpful framework that moves thinking beyond the unhelpful constraints of our current operational classifications. It is likely to be of interest to trainee and practising psychiatrists across all psychiatric sub-specialities.' The British Journal of Psychiatry, Review of the hardback: 'The Spectrum of Psychotic Disorders is a successful contribution for consolidating an impressive breadth of information and presenting it in a manner that will appeal to both clinicians and researchers …' Journal of Clinical Psychiatry

Daryl Fujii works as a clinical neuropsychologist at the Hawaii State Hospital and also has a private practice specializing in forensic neuropsychology. Iqbal Ahmed is a Professor of Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry, John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii.