This work complements the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine and The Handbook of Psychooncology. Topics include the role of psychiatry in terminal care, diagnosis and management of depression, suicide in the terminally ill, pain management, the nature of suffering in terminal illness, and psychotherapeutic interventions. The book also takes into consideration new directions for psychosocial palliative care research.

Psychiatric, or psychosocial, palliative care has transformed palliative medicine. Palliation that neglects psychosocial dimensions of patient and family experience fails to meet contemporary standards of comprehensive palliative care. While a focus on somatic issues has sometimes overshadowed attention to psychological, existential, and spiritual end-of-life challenges, the past decade has seen an all encompassing, multi-disciplinary approach to care for the dying take hold. Written by internationally known psychiatry and palliative care experts, the Handbook of Psychiatry in Palliative Medicine is an essential reference for all providers of palliative care, including psychiatrists, psychologists, mental health counselors, oncologists, hospice workers, and social workers.

Revised throughout with an additional emphasis on nursing care, this handbook is a concise and authoritative guide to modern palliative care. An ideal resource for the busy professional management of patients with end of life care needs.

In recent years, palliative care has emerged as the leading model of person-centered care focused on preserving quality of life and alleviating distress for people and families experiencing serious and life-limiting medical illness. Alongside this development has come a growing recognition of the need for expertise in psychiatric diagnosis, psychopharmacology, and psychotherapy within the interdisciplinary team of specialists tasked with identifying and addressing the varied sources of suffering in patients with advanced medical illnesses. The Clinical Manual of Palliative Care Psychiatry was written to motivate and guide readers -- whether mental health clinicians or palliative care providers -- to deepen their understanding of the psychosocial dimensions of suffering for the benefit of seriously ill patients and the support of their families. Great care has been exercised in the choice of topics and features: Chapter content emphasizes practical aspects of assessment and management that are unique to the palliative care setting, ensuring that clinicians are equipped to address the most common challenges they are likely to face. Each chapter ends with a list of supplemental materials -- including key publications (e.g., "Fast Facts" from the Center to Advance Palliative Care) and links to relevant modules from the Education in Palliative and End-of-Life Care curriculum (e.g., EPEC for Oncology) -- aimed at extending and enhancing reader knowledge of the topics covered. The authors provide thorough coverage of medication use, including off-label applications, which are common in palliative care. A wealth of tables and figures present clinically relevant information in a concise and easy-to-grasp manner. Practical and brimming with essential information and useful techniques, the Clinical Manual of Palliative Care Psychiatry empowers both mental health clinicians and palliative care practitioners to more skillfully respond to psychosocial suffering in seriously ill and dying patients.

Emphasising the multi-disciplinary nature of palliative care the fourth edition of this text also looks at the individual professional roles that contribute to the best-quality palliative care.

"From its origins, with leaders such as Dame Cicely Saunders, Eric Wilkes, Colin Murray and James in the United Kingdom, Balfour Mount in Canada, Vittorio in Italy, and Elizabeth Ross and Avery Weisman in the United States, hospice and palliative care has always embraced the "whole" person, in the context of their family. From her observations of people with advanced and progressive illness, Dame Cicely Saunders introduced the concept of "total pain." Pain had physical, emotional, social, and spiritual components, all of which needed to be addressed. Of course, excellent control of pain and other symptoms is vital, but the role of the palliative care team, including the physicians, is much more than this. It also extends beyond expertise in the management of physical and psychiatric symptoms. Effective symptom control may be necessary before other goals of hospice and palliative care can be achieved. But equally, failure to address emotional, social, or spiritual components of symptoms may lead to inadequate symptom control. Physicians can and should contribute to this holistic assessment and care. This is why palliative medicine is a rewarding field for physicians-there is much opportunity to practice comprehensive whole person care"--

The book is a pocket sized guide providing detailed and comprehensive coverage of clinical psychiatry. Useful to medical trainees in psychiatry and preparing for exams. Its detail and clinical coverage mean it can continue to be used by junior psychiatric trainees and those entering individual psychiatric sub-specialties later in training.