'Managing the side effects of psychotropic drugs', by L. Kola Oyewumi and Renée de Wit. Pp263. Price $30. Ontario, Canada: Zxmaxx Communications, 1998. ISBN 0 9684372 0 6.
This book is the size of the British National Formulary and is intended for both professionals and patients. Its objective is to assist the clinician in the identification and the management of the side effects of psychotropic medicines. It approaches this task in a rather novel way in that the data are related to the side effect and which psychotropic medicines commonly cause it rather than the more usual way of relating the side effects to particular drugs. Unfortunately, I did not find this approach helpful: in the clinical environment or when advising a patient, I am most commonly asked about the common side effects of particular medicines. This back-to-front approach also results in generalisations, which can be most misleading. For example, the book provides prevalence figures for each side effect (eg, constipation, 50 per cent) without any reference to the likelihood that the side effect is both dose-dependent and product-dependent.
An addition to these fundamental problems was one of translation. Many of the terms, proprietary names, and even psychotropic medicines were unfamiliar and the English (Canadian) difficult to understand.
My pockets are already bulging with the BNF and other useful books and I will not be stretching the material further to find room for this one.
Reviewer - David Branford
David Branford is director of pharmacy at Southern Derbyshire mental health trust