Book Reviews
Management of Mental Disorders (Edition one)
Mario Maj, Juan José López-Ibor, Norman Sartorius, and Mitsumoto Sato
ISBN: 0-95870-52 -8 640 pages World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Mental Heath and Substance Abuse
Nicholas G Procter
Associate Professor, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Division of Health Sciences, University of South Australia, City East Campus, North Terrace, Adelaide SA
It is difficult to imagine a clinical practice individual or team without this book as a resource. This work is the culmination of projects prepared by the Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety Disorders, St. Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, which is part of the Australian Multisite World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Mental Health and Substance Abuse. The role of the WHO Collaborating Centre is to offer leadership in the development of assessment instruments and treatments protocols for mental disorders. In the opening preface to this two volume set (volume 1 was reviewed in CN September 1998), Centre Director Gavin Andrews, makes the important point that there is a lower proportion of people with mental disorders in hospital than at any time in the past 100 years. It is not that we have suddenly become healthier writes Andrews, but rather that we have learned to manage people in the community who would once have been in hospital. This book is written in direct response to this dramatic turn of events in our nations health care industry, and is therefore central to the education and training of mental health professionals. Volume 2 is divided into 5 chapters: Schizophrenic Disorders; Dieting Disorders; Personality Disorders; Sexual Dysfunction; Sleep Disorders. Each with it's own selection of resource materials.
With knowledge that cause, presentation and management of psychiatric disorders and their symptoms presented in what appears to be a seamless format, this book can be dipped into by use of the index or read cover-to-cover.
Consider, for example, the section on the impulsive or emotionally unstable person (Personality Disorders). Beginning with a discussion on the features of an unstable personality and moving to mow to manage such an individual both in and out of crisis, there is throughout the section, (the entire work, really) a reassuring tone in the way that material is conveyed to the reader. While much of the material 'are merely general guidelines that clinicians may find useful when dealing with such individuals' (p. 536), the authors have taken account of the complexity of personality difficulties, emphasising that at all times it is essential to be fair and consistent. The clinicians time is well spent reading about how to manage such a person, seek out therapeutic alliance, establish a team approach, at the same time as reaching a more informed understanding of the effect an individual may have on mental health professionals - including feelings of frustration and anger. The authors are acutely aware of the need for clinicians to become aware of their own subjective responses (negative feelings) to behaviors they find problematic and challenging and to avoid acting on them. All of this leads to better choices for an effective management plan. In the case of an emotionally unstable person, having a very clear management plan means that the clinician, client and their families may work together to target strategies and support programs for suicidal threats and other life threatening behavior with the goal of maximizing ongoing coping and health choices.
In all other sections of this volume, the combination of searching for information about a particular problem or issue, at the same time offering informed local insights and suggestions based upon scholarly literature and reader feedback, is ever present. That is what makes this book so very good.
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