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Title: Desk Reference to the Diagnostic Criteria From DSM-IV-TR by American Psychiatric Association, Michael B. First ISBN: 0890420270 Publisher: Amer Psychiatric Pr Pub. Date: 15 September, 2000 Format: Spiral-bound Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $32.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4
Rating: 4
Summary: Use DSM Jr. and leave your hefty DSM home on the bookshelf!
Comment: The Quick Reference to the Diagnostic Criteria from DSM-IV-TR (aka DSM Jr.) is a welcome addition to the office, briefcase, or backpack of any mental health professional or student. The text presents only the most crucial information needed to make a diagnosis. Background information on each disorder, such as prevalence, course of the disorder, and pointers on differential diagnosis are eliminated in favor of being concise. Unfortunately, Appendix A, which contains the Decision Trees for Differential Diagnosis, is noticeably absent from the DSM Jr. Personally, I like having the assistance of a visual aid in the form of a forced choice flow chart when making a tough choice between similar diagnoses. The decision not to include Appendix A in the DSM Jr. is the sole reason why I can only give this text only 4 out of 5 stars. The process of editing the hefty 943 pages of the DSM-IV-TR and then transforming it into a svelte 370 page Quick Reference book is a tough job. However, the information contained in the often forgotten Appendix section can sometimes be more useful than some of the information found in the main body of the text.
Rating: 5
Summary: A GREAT alternative to the cumbersome DSM-IV
Comment: As a case manager for people with serious mental illnesses and/or co-occurring disorders, I'm digging into the DSM-IV a lot. I LOVE this smaller edition. It covers the basics of the phone-book sized DSM-IV, without all the generally needless details. If I need more information (and it's rare that I do), then I borrow a co-worker's full-sized DSM-IV. But 99 percent of the time, this great little edition does the job. For those who have heavy caseloads and cluttered desks and too much paperwork, this book is a joy because it cuts to the basics. If you are in private practice and have time to sit around and peruse the DSM-IV, then go ahead and get the full-sized version for more money. But for those of us on the front lines in the mental health field, this book is just what the doctor ordered...
Rating: 5
Summary: My constant companion
Comment: The argument "diagnosis/no diagnosis" should be over with by now. A patient may be treated in a community mental health setting, then in a hospital, then elsewhere. The referring clinician needs to provide information about her difficulty, and diagnosis is a concise and helpful way of doing this. Her care will be paid for by an insurance company or a government entity, which usually (whether we like it or not) will ask for a number to ensure they have a disease that "meets criteria." Careful training in diagnosis is needed to ensure health professionals don't have a cavalier attitude towards the diagnoses they provide; but simply sticking to the criteria outlined in the IV-TR helps ward off such lack of carefulness. It also helps make it more likely that Dr. X in San Francisco is talking about the same thing when he says "schizophrenia, paranoid type" as Dr. Y in Virginia Beach when he says "schizophrenia, paranoid type." Such reliability is essential in our continued research on mental illness and substance abuse.
That said, a clinician in a hospital or clinic setting who needs to understand or determine diagnosis can benefit from both the hardcover versions of the DSM-IV-TR and this spiral bound version. I myself have the hardbound DSM-IV, and instead of purchasing both TR's, simply purchased the spiral-bound DSM-IV-TR. The spiral bound is essential because, with so much use, a glued binding will quickly fall apart. As a clinician currently assigned to a county hospital screening site, I carry my little spiral book everywhere. It fits easily into my purse, but it's not so small that the print is hard to read. There is even a pull-out of all the diagnoses at the beginning that's handy to glance at or tack on the wall.
You will need the hardbound because of the additional information, but if your work requires you to do evaluations in a variety of settings, or even if you know you will be referring to it often and don't want to be bothered getting the big one off the shelf, definitely purchase this one as well.
Kelly L. Norman, ACSW
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