Psychopharmacology: Drugs, the Brain, and Behavior

In my approximately 20 years as a psychiatrist, one of the many holy grails has been a decent psychopharmacology textbook. Don't get excited, this is not it, but it's a very good basic building block for getting to that point. Meyer does a very good job at laying out the basics of neurotransmitters and receptors and how they figure in various psychiatric disorders. He goes into detail about their role in drug abuse and is the master at simply explaining the complex without dumbing things down. I would have liked more on neurocircuits, which Pliszka emphasizes in his Neuroscience for the Mental Health Clinician (but he barely talks about receptors and neurotransmitters), but in going through psychopharm books, I get the sense you just can't have it all. I'm sure some will extoll the virtues of the APA Textbook, but I find it dry and unhelpful. Many like Stahl's books and he's good about marrying the science and clinical practice but his presentation is always too busy and confusing for me and unlike how I feel about Meyer, I always feel that when he's simplifying or putting in all his cartoons and diagrams, something is being left out.Besides the neurocircuits, I would have liked more on pharmacological agents - there's some but not enough for me. Still, if I was to recommend books for residents getting started on the practice of psychopharmacology, I'd recommend this one and Pliszka's book. After that, you just have to read the articles.

As a neuroscience PhD student, I can say this is highly comprehensive and up to date as of January 2020. It goes into far greater depth than most people will ever need as covers basic neuroscience concepts as well as in depth pharmacology. It is well written enough that I have been reading it for enjoyment and has it excellent graphics. I will be recommending this to all who ask for book suggestions. It is suitable for a wide range of audiences and experience levels.

I teach psychology and have struggled for a while to develop and learn more information about the biological perspective of psychology. This text provides excellent information on talking about brain processes and how drugs affect those processes. With that said, I do not think this is manageable for undergraduate study. I think this textbook is better suited for graduate students, but nevertheless an excellent textbook.

Since the name of the book is called psychopharmacology, I was expecting to read about medication, mechanism of action, therapeutic function, instead the book is very general about psychotropic drugs...oh well

easy to read and understand- incredibly informative

It is a psych textbook and most textbooks are wordy, but getting through a chapter of this book felt like hell

Perfect condition