Guidelines for the Use of Psychotropic Drugs: A Clinical Handbook

. . . to the Clinician Although huge quantities of drugs are dispensed daily by psychiatrists, there appears to be insufficient concern about the short and long term effects of these exogenous agents on the recipients - our patients. Many clinicians have been trained at a time when knowledge of clinical psychopharmacology was super­ ficial at best, and recent trainees do not necessarily have access to newer, con­ stantly changing, relevant information. The busy clinician is frequently depen­ dent upon the limited knowledge dispensed by the drug company representatives and naturally shys away from many of the more esoteric contributions appearing in the literature. Because of the foregoing issues, the Executive of the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry of the University of Toronto, with the financial support of the Ministry of Health of the Government of Ontario, organized an inter­ national symposium on May 14-17, 1982, to bring together some of the acknowledged experts in clinical psychopharmacology. This book is, in part, a reflection of that symposium. The editors are aware that a contributed volume, however tightly edited, is not necessarily a textbook. Notwithstanding this, it was thought to be important to assemble expert opinion on current important issues, of immediate concern to the practicing clinician. With this in mind, the chapters have been organized around five themes. Schizophrenia, Affective disorders, and Anxiety, are clearly important since they are the major targets of drug use in psychiatry.