The explosive growth in the neurosciences--growth that prompted the 2002 publication of the timely fourth edition of The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences--continues unabated. To make this vital information more accessible to residents and practitioners alike, the editors have created a unique Essentials volume based on that acclaimed textbook.

The Essentials is approximately half the 1,400 pages of the complete Textbook's fourth edition. As such, it functions as a subspecialty reference that details assessment techniques and the full range of treatments available for patients with neuropsychiatric disorders. Like the tremendously successful fourth edition, this abridged version stands out because of its impressive clinical utility and practicality and because of the singular expertise of its preeminent chapter authors.

With 20 chapters written by 46 of today's leading clinicians and researchers in neuropsychiatry, this concise reference focuses on the key principles of diagnosis and treatment of patients with neuropsychiatric disorders. Like its parent textbook, it includes

A An extensively revised and expanded chapter on the neuropsychiatric aspects of deliriumA An ambitious (and new to the fourth edition of the Textbook) section about the clinical relevance of drug-induced deliriumA A detailed, in-depth index

This volume begins with assessment (bedside neuropsychiatry, evaluation, clinical and functional imaging), and continues through symptomatologies (delirium, aphasia, memory and amnesia), disorders (traumatic brain injury; seizure, sleep, and cerebrovascular disorders; brain tumors; ethanol and other chemical dependencies; Alzheimer's disease and other dementing illnesses; schizophrenia; mood and affective disorders; anxiety disorders; and disorders of childhood and adolescence), and treatments (psychopharmacologic, cognitive, and behavioral).

Remarkably relevant and practical, this Essentials volume in clinical neurosciences joins an elite group of textbooks that comprise the core curricula of psychiatry and neurology residencies. It will also prove to be an invaluable resource for psychiatry and neurology residents preparing to take the daunting ABPN certification examination.

Stuart C. Yudofsky, M.D., is D.C. and Irene Ellwood Professor and Chairman of the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of Baylor College of Medicine. He is Chief of Psychiatry Service at The Methodist Hospital and is also responsible for oversight of academic activities in psychiatry at The Menninger Clinic and Hospital, the Ben Taub General Hospital, the Houston Veterans Administration Medical Center, the St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, and the Texas Children's Hospital.

Robert E. Hales, M.D., M.B.A., is Professor and Chair in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine. He is also Director of the Behavioral Health Center, UC Davis Health System, and Medical Director of the Sacramento County Mental Health Service in Sacramento, California.