In today's world of litigation and managed care, informed consent in psychiatric practice is more important than ever and providing detailed information about illnesses and medications to patients and their families is vital to informed consent.

     The easy-to-read handouts on psychiatric illnesses and medications in the third edition of this immensely popular—and above all, practical—volume are key to helping patients and families understand their treatments before giving informed consent. This nuts-and-bolts resource is designed to help both beginning and seasoned clinicians get started and stay organized, providing a single source for the many practical forms, abbreviated rating scales and instruments, and information handouts for patients and their families used in daily clinical practice.

With an updated format of three rather than two sections, this invaluable reference has been revised as follows:

• Physician Forms—Previous forms have been updated and revised, nonapplicable forms have been deleted, and new forms, such as a Medication Log, Clozapine Prescribing Guidelines and Monitoring Form, and Informed Consent to Treatment with Psychotropic Medications, have been added. Most significantly, long versions of rating scales have been replaced by abbreviated versions (e.g., the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale was replaced with the 4-Item Positive Symptom Rating Scale and Brief Negative Symptom Assessment, and the Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale was condensed to a single page), and new rating scales have been added, including the Brief Bipolar Disorder Symptom Scale and the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale.
   
• Information about Psychiatric Illnesses for Patients and Families—These handouts for patients and their families have been aggressively revised to include current information on new medications, with brand-new handouts about Alzheimer's disease, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and anxiety disorders.
   
• Information about Medications for Patients and Families—Extensively revised to consolidate the discussion of medications, or a drug class, from a long and short version (from previous editions) to a single version, these medication handouts have been expanded to include information on the second-generation antipsychotics, agents for treatment of ADHD, cognitive enhancers, recently introduced antidepressants, and the new mood stabilizers.

     Medical students, psychiatric residents, and busy clinicians treating patients individually or in groups will appreciate the unsurpassed convenience of this indispensable volume, with its complete set of forms and protocols and comprehensive list of illness and medication handouts for patients and families.

     Truly the ultimate in practicality, this edition, like the two previous editions, is packaged with easy-to-use, convenient electronic versions (in PDF files) on CD-ROM, enabling practitioners to print these forms as needed.