This new edition features a unique, three-pronged approach to psychotherapeutic management which emphasizes the nurse’s three primary tools: themselves and their relationship with patients, medications, and the environment. Written in a friendly, approachable style, this text clearly defines the nurse’s role in caring for individuals with psychiatric disorders like no other book on the market!

Unit I. The basics. Me, meds, Milieu -- Historical issues -- Legal issues -- Psychobiologic bases of behavior -- Cultural issues -- Spiritual issues -- unit II. Me : therapeutic nurse-patient relationship. Models for working with psychiatric patients -- Learning to communicate professionally -- Working with an individual patient -- Working with groups of patients -- Working with the family -- unit III. Meds : psychopharmacology. Introduction to psychotropic drugs -- Antiparkinsonian drugs -- Antipsychotic drugs -- Antidepressant drugs -- Antimanic drugs -- Antianxiety drugs -- Antidementia drugs -- Over-the-counter drugs -- unit IV. Environment : Milieu management. Introduction to Milieu management -- Variables affecting the therapeutic environment: violence and suicide -- Therapeutic environment in various treatment settings -- unit V. Putting it all together (psychopathology). Introduction to psychopathology -- Sshizophrenia Spectrum and other psychotic disorders -- Depressive disorders -- Bipolar disorders -- Anxiety-related, obsessive-compulsive, trauma- and stressor-related, somatic, and dissociative disorders -- Cognitive disorders -- Personality disorders -- Sexual disorders -- Substance abuse disorders -- Eating disorders -- unit VI. Special populations. Survivors of violence and trauma -- Children and adolescents -- Older adults -- Soldiers and veterans.