Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Useful, but not that revised, 5 Jan 2006
We are in the in-between time, the DSM-IV being over a decade old, and the DSM-V being due out at some unspecified date, but giving the general publication rate of the major DSM revisions and the advance of general knowledge, it cannot be too far into the future. I have the DSM-IV, burgundy-cover edition, and have dipped into the DSM-IV-TR on occasion from the library, but have found no particular reason to need to purchase the TR silver edition for the kind of work I do. This is a guide that is useful, indeed required, for graduate students in mental health and psychological fields, and for professionals working in those fields. As a pastoral care provider, I find it useful in many cases, but will warn that it is not a definitive tool to be used by itself in the hands of laypersons (which, in terms of professional psychology, I most certainly am). Symptoms and diagnoses are difficult to isolate, and not to be left in the hands of amateurs - to that end, I often worry about the general availability of books such as this (I have a similar fear for the PDR, the Physicians Desk Reference, whereby people try to self-diagnose and self-medicate based on their reading). The DSM-IV is not without controversy - indeed, the whole psychological enterprise is not without controversy. However, this is the current standard by which the profession measures itself (sometimes a bit in opposition, but there are few who hold the DSM to be meaningless). Professionals will want to have this book; graduate students may or may not need this particular revision.
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25 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a bridge between past and future psychiatry interpretations, 25 Feb 2002
By A Customer
This DSM-IV Text revision serves as a bridge across the old DSM IV and the next DSM V. In this text revision the reader cannot find substantial changes of the diagnostic criteria, but only an augmented revision of the parts which present and describe the various disorders. It could be interpreted as a little change, yet the augmented parts of the text are often very important, since they provide an integration of scientific knowledge to the data of the last ten years. It is to be remembered that the changes and augmentations of the text are distributed in a very dense manner and involve chiefly the statistical and epidemiological data, the parts concerning "diagnostic characteristics", "differential diagnosis", "linked disorders", "prevalence", "illness course", together with amendments of minimal mistakes and an amelioration of the text which is now clearer, with a didactic purpose. Some examples of relevant changes of the texts can be found for the subtypes of the "Iperactivity-attention deficit disorder", codes and list of the causes of dementias, linked laboratory findings and differential diagnosis, risk genetic factors and the most recent prevalence data in U.S.A. An important extension can be found in the text about the laboratory data linked with skizophrenia, which are updated to the neurophysiological, neurocognitive and neuroimaging data of the nineties. The concept of"skizophrenia spectrum" has also been introduced. A similar revision can be found in the sections concerning epidemiology, laboratory and linked disorders of "Mood disorders." In the Anxiety disorders area important updates concern the familiarity data of all disorders, while an important update can be found in the Post-traumatic stress disorder subsection concerning linked characteristics, comorbidity, illness course and prevalence in different populations and in different types of trauma, higher vulnerability in patients with a history of depression. In the Axis II disorders it is chiefly relevant the evidence of a good long-term prognosis for Border-line personality disorder and the false difference between males and females concerning the prevalence in Dependent personality disorder. In the appendices various little changes are also introduced and atypical antipsychotics are now included in the Medication-induced movement disorders subsection. Generally speaking and as far as the epidemiological and clinical updates are concerned, together with important trends for research and didactic activity, this DSM IV TR is surely a most useful and authoritative purchase.
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14 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant!, 27 Nov 2002
A Book that is useful for both the standard undergraduate student and for those who have an avid interest in this field of psychology. Its clear terminology and description is ideal for when referencing essays and assignments. For those who are passionate about this field, the breadth of mental disorders and conditions that this book covers is enough to satisfy any quench for more knowledge. A MUST HAVE IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, for those who are not it acts as a wonderful reference.
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