A better understanding of the nature of fear and anxiety, and the brain mechanisms involved in them, would be of enor-mous benefit to society. In Anxious. Joseph LeDoux, whose New York University lab has been at the forefront of research efforts in this area, examines these disorders and their origins, and discoveries that can help restore sufferers to normalcy.

Fundamentals of Clinical Psychopharmacology provides up-to-date, evidence-based and unbiased information about psychopharmacology. It spans the range of the discipline, from mode of action and side effects of drugs to meta-analyses of clinical trials. It is anchored to practice guidelines produced by the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the British Association for Psychopharmacology (BAP). Care has been taken to provide an international perspective that makes it equally useful to practitioners in the United States and other countries.

- First principles chapter explains key concepts and mechanisms of biochemistry
- Systems-based chapters describe the processes that underpin normal function
- Clinical cases teach you to think like a doctor
- Graphic narratives bring cases to life
- Starter questlons stimulate curiosity and learning
- Clinical SBAs chapter helps you revise and pass your exams.

Orthodox psychiatric texts are often rich in facts, but thin in concept. Depression may be defined as a dysfunction of mood, but of what use is a mood? How can anxiety be both symptom and adaptation to stress? What links the disparate disabilities of perception and reasoning in schizophrenia? Why does the same situation push one person into drink, drugs, danger, or despair and bounce harmlessly off another?

MacKinnon's fascinating model of the mind as a vital function will enlighten anyone intrigued by the mysteries of thought, feeling, and behavior. Clinicians in training will especially appreciate the way mental illness can illuminate normal mental processes, as medical illness in general teaches about normal body functions. For students, the book also includes useful guides to psychiatric assessment and diagnosis.