Psychological Masquerade, Second Edition: Distinguishing Psychological from Organic Disorders

by Robert L. Taylor MD

Overview

When faced with a patient whose psychological symptoms may stem from an organic, or medical, condition rather than psychology, how does the practitioner determine exactly which is the true case? To facilitate this process and give psychologists, social workers, and nurses a useable guide to assessment, Robert Taylor created Psychological Masquerade and has updated it to be the most complete handbook you will ever need in the field.

New chapters on violent behavior, amnesia and dementia, sex obsession, and Munchausen-by-Proxy fill out the guide and numerous case studies help clarify diagnostic criteria and provide a welcome hands-on approach to caring for clients in this delicate balance. As a further enhancement of the text as assessment tool, self-tests for hypothetical cases are included as are specific clinical tests that aid in clue gathering.

This is the perfect clinical guide for any practitioner who is likely to come into contact with psychological masquerade among their clients and will be a welcome addition to the practitioner's toolbox.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826102478
Publisher:	Springer Publishing Company
Publication date:	02/27/2007
Edition description:	Third Edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.94(h) x 0.61(d)

About the Author

Robert L. Taylor, MD, is a consulting psychiatrist and former associate clinical professor of family medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Table of Contents

Preface
• Appearances Can Be Deceiving
• Design of the Nervous System
• Clinical Traps
• Brain Syndrome
• More Clues to Psychological Masquerade
• Looking for Psychological Masquerade in the Clinic Setting
• Four Masqueraders
• Drug-Induced Organic Mental Disorders
• Somatization: The Other Side of Things
• The Elderly
• The Young
• Putting It to the Test: A Summary and 15 Test Cases
Annotated Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"...much improved over the previous edition. I highly recommend it to clinicians who treat patients with psychiatric disorders. It is now much more useful and valuable."--Doody's Book Review Service

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Michael Joel Schrift, DO, MA (Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine)
Description: The psychiatric presentations of medical and neurological diseases are covered in this third edition, which is significantly improved over the previous edition with up-to-date citations of the scientific literature. Edited and authored by a clinician in the field, this is a useful guide for nonpsychiatric physicians and mental health workers in thinking about the differential diagnosis of patients with psychopathology.
Purpose: As the author emphasized in the second edition, the purpose of the book is to make readers aware that "Psychological symptoms are not always best explained psychologically. A host of medical conditions continue to have a nasty habit of masquerading as psychiatric disorders." I wholeheartedly agree with this statement and psychiatrists need to be able to (and trained to) make differential diagnoses of psychiatric symptoms (not just DSM-IV differential diagnoses!). Psychopathology is a manifestation of abnormal functioning neuronal circuits resulting in impaired information processing. Genetic, metabolic, toxic, structural, infectious, and epileptic as well as other etiologies could give rise to the abnormal functioning of these circuits. All psychiatric disorders are "organic" (there are no inorganic disorders), it's just some disorders have more overt neuromedical causes than others. This book provides a way to think about psychiatric symptoms.
Audience: The intended audience is mental healthcare professionals including psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric social workers, and other clinicians who diagnose and treat patients with psychiatric symptoms.
Features: Topics covered in the 12 chapters include problems in theoretical orientation in the interpretation of symptoms, the basics of the nervous system and brain function, common clinical traps such as equating psychosis with schizophrenia or other idiopathic psychotic disorders, recognition of specific neuropsychiatric syndromes, examples of common masqueraders of neuromedical syndromes, drug-induced psychiatric disorders, somatization disorders, disorders of children and the elderly, and, lastly, 15 helpful case histories. An added bonus in this edition is an excellent annotated bibliography. Each chapter ends with a reference section.
Assessment: This book is much improved over the previous edition. I highly recommend it to clinicians who treat patients with psychiatric disorders. It is now much more useful and valuable for clinicians with updated, contemporary references.

Doody's Review Service