Case Files Psychiatry, Third Edition (LANGE Case Files),   ISBN:9780071598651

Customer Rating: 

this is a very good book. It reinforces what i am learning on the psych wards

Customer Rating: 

When preparing for the vignette portion of oral psychiatry boards, I found this book very helpful for quick review and answer template creation. It is very accessibly written and the lack of easy-to-read study materials for the vignette portion of the exam makes it a very useful adjunct and is a nice "restful" prep when compared to the cut-and-dry DSM-IV memorization. One problem many encounter is "freezing up" during the impersonal, time-limited vignette exam - making it difficult to "cough up" all the necessary diagnostic and treatment possibilities within allotted time. The focus on less-is-more in this book allowed me to read it several times and I was able to answer many of similar vignette-related questions on what felt like an auto-pilot. Keep in mind that ABPN oral tests "bread-and-butter" of psychiatry, meaning that it is unlikely that a vignette is going to focus on controversial or arcane areas of the field (unlike SHELF, PRITE or written boards, where anything goes). Obviously, it is very important to practice the vignettes listed on ABPN site and keep your differential as wide as possible. Can't give it 5 stars because of factual errors mentioned by other reviewers.

Customer Rating: 

These cases are a good representation of many of the diagnoses in the DSM-IV, and it was very useful to help cement the concepts of psychiatry. The questions at the end of each chapter were good for testing comprehension.

Customer Rating: 

I'm am generally a big, big fan of the Case Files series...the case presentation always helps anchor details in my head better & for longer than the long lists provided in review books, and they always provide a really helpful, practical approach to DDx, Rx & helpful pathognomonic tip-offs. We have memories built for anecdotes, not laundry lists. *However* this particular one is rife with errors...from the harmless (but vaguely annoying) grammatical errors to more worrisome errors of content. Pts with amphetamine intoxication have constricted pupils? L-Dopa & MAOIs have extrapyramidal Sx as side-effects? Really? Also, there are lots of annoying contradictions within a given case presentation. For example, at the beginning of the case of PCP intoxication it says bluntly that benzos "should not be given" since they delay excretion of PCP. Then, two pages later, it says benzos can be given. I understand that distilling practice guidelines to a couple pages can be hard, and that a general rule of thumb can be disregarded when the drug benefit outweighs the side-effects, but the authors do a VERY bad job VERY frequently of couching these sort of things in appropriate language. Don't couch something as a absolute contraindication if it's simply a relative one. Also, within the autistic case file it says that 40% of autistic kids have MR, then in a comprehension question one page later it asks what percentage of autistic children have MR. Choices: A) 100%, B) 50-75%, C) 25-50%, D) 1-5%. Well, you just read not one page before that the answer was C. Problem? The answer is B. Granted, this is pretty minor in the scheme of things, but the frequent, pointed disagreement between the case file text and the comprehension questions that followed immediately afterwards further undermined my confidence in the book's accuracy. I agree with the previous reviewer who suggested that the company rushed publication of this guy...lots of mistakes/inconsistencies/poor phrasing that any half-asleep layperson could catch. That said, I really haven't found a suitable substitute for Case Files. Like all its siblings, it's eminently readable & interesting...I'd be hard-pressed to say I prefer a textbook to my leisure reading, but this comes darn close. And let me tell you, I'm a real baby about making my textbook reading as palatable as possible, so this is high praise. Bottom line: I'm going to be super vigilant about double-checking this particular book's content against less 'readable' review books, and I'd recommend you do the same. Also, maybe we reviewers can do the public service of listing mistakes w/ pg numbers that we individually find for future readers/purchasers of this book.

Customer Rating: 

Very good book. I can recommend it to everybody who has to do with psychiatry in clinical practice, school,... The book is a good companion in training in diagnostical matters.