Reddit reviews Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology: Neuroscientific Basis and Practical Applications
We found 17 Reddit comments about Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology: Neuroscientific Basis and Practical Applications. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Cambridge University Press
>Well then enlighten me on how chemistry works than
While I'm at it, would you like me to explain calculus too? How about string theory? Macroeconomics?
Short answer: drugs can have similar names and have very different effects.
Long answer: read a psychopharmacology textbook.
Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology
Looks like they have a new addition out too... (edit: it occurred to me the older versions might be cheaper since you're a student and all. But it's worth every penny.)
Dr. Stahl has plenty of books, but if you just get one get this one. It's mostly pharmacology of prescribed drugs, not much in there on recreational stuff but there is some. But maybe what you are interested in since you mentioned antidepressants -- depression meds probably get the largest chapter. Also has background on general brain neurotransmission before he gets into the meds. Hope this helps.
Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology provides a wonderfully detailed background to disorders and meds: https://www.amazon.com/Stahls-Essential-Psychopharmacology-Neuroscientific-Applications/dp/1107686466
Also, Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology-Prescribers Guide is a pretty useful clinical handbook: https://www.amazon.com/Prescribers-Guide-Stahls-Essential-Psychopharmacology/dp/1316618137/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1316618137&pd_rd_r=401c320d-e9d7-11e8-b8bf-2d5ac68107a8&pd_rd_w=MuVum&pd_rd_wg=pWcoB&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=6725dbd6-9917-451d-beba-16af7874e407&pf_rd_r=64E9CSETY8NTEVKCH2N3&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=64E9CSETY8NTEVKCH2N3
Also pretty sure there is a Stahl's guide to child/adolescent psych, but I haven't read it.
> have an avid interest in medicine, especially those that treat mental and emotional and neurological disorders.
Just buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Stahls-Essential-Psychopharmacology-Neuroscientific-Applications/dp/1107686466
The real TL;DR is that, as much as we like to think we know about the way antidepressants work, we really don't understand the whole picture. If you don't respond to one SSRI, you may respond to a different SSRI. There's a lot of rules of thumb about side effects and potency related to the neurotransmitter targets, but if you're looking at receptor binding profiles in an attempt to tailor therapy you're venturing outside the bounds of the demonstrated clinical effects of the medications in this class. We're not even at the point where we understand the implications of all the receptors involved, much less tailoring therapy using pk parameters to individuals.
Stahls Essential Psychopharmacology is a great comprehensive introduction to the field of psychopharmacology. Will look up other stuff when off mobile.
This is a list of treatments that have been shown to work for the depressive side.
Light therapy might help, but it also has the risk of triggering manic episodes. You should be an a mood stabilizer before you try it and it should be monitored closely by a psychiatrist.
Social Rhythm Therapy has shown to be the most effective talk therapy/lifestyle intervention which is effective in treating bipolar disorder. All others aren't very effective unless you've been stabilized.
Getting the medication right is an extremely complex interplay of neurobiology and pharmacology. If you can, you should be seeing a highly competent psychiatrist, or if you have the ability, read up on psychopharmacology yourself. Here's a prescriber's guide too. That second idea is dangerous and intellectually demanding, only use it as a last resort and only if you can consult with a physician.
I find that Essential Psychopharmacology: A Neuroscientific Basis and Practical Applications is a very good resource for acidpHarm's line of questioning
I believe Stephen Stahl's Prescriber's Guide for psychopharmacology may be what you're looking for.
It gives dosing ranges for each disease state, how to initiate dosing, and tidbits such as whether it might be used as an augmentation agent. I have his Essential Psychopharmacology book, and I absolutely love it. He's a great writer - clear, but thorough.
Now Opiod addiction is such a big deal for our body needs to be continuously releasing our endorphins in the right amount. Not too much, not too little. Furthermore we need to release endorphins at the right time and the right duration. Endorphin like substances that last too long in the blood stream can confuse the body.
Note it is not just endorphins but your body has other signal neurotransmitters and hormones to determine when you are in pain or not.
So what does this have to do with Opiod Addiction. Well if you give Morphine to a person who just had recent surgery they will not get an addiction. But give it too many days after the recovery period and they can get an addiction. And give it to a normal human being who is not hurting and they can get an addiction.
Why do they get the addiction? Because you confuse the body and the body re calibrates the number of endorphin receptors on various nerve cells and non nerve cells. And now you need to use an outside source instead of relying on the inside source.
That said opiod drugs are wonderful drugs when used correctly. With the right duration, the right total dosage, the right timing, and so on.
But we now have other drugs that can treat pain conditions via working on different type of receptors and ion channels. For example the serotonin system, the norepinephrine system, the alpha d receptor that influence ion channels, endocannobid system ndma receptors, and so on. Furthermore things like certain types of exercise like Yoga treats pain via affecting the vagus nerve and acetylcholine, we are thing about using direct electrical stimulation of specific brain regions and nerves to fight pain and so on.
It will probably long term we will be using multiple medicines and non med treatments for pain, and we may be using medicine A for x days of recovery and then swap you to medicine B or C for the tapering period. Or we use two medicines that work in different manners and you use lower doses of these two medicines instead of a single medicine and a very high dose or a medium dose.
Right now we are in our infancy stage, much like how we were in our even earlier infancy stage when we used Morphine to treat shock in human beings where we had to chop off limbs to prevent infections from gunshot ruins, but without the morphine the surgery killed in higher amounts, but with morphine we saved lives but we did not know we need to taper the morphine off and prevent healthy people from getting the morphine in the US Civil War and other wars of the 1800s or else we create morphine addicts.
I will stop now and not continue more with science stuff. If you want to read more about this I recommend these two books.
and this book
Well if you are looking for a good psychopharmacology book Stahl's should do it.
https://www.amazon.com/Stahls-Essential-Psychopharmacology-Neuroscientific-Applications/dp/1107686466/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_sims?ie=UTF8
Make sure you have your fundamentals down, otherwise the rest will be noise (or worse, appear to be simple),
[Introduction to Neuropsychopharmacology (Iversen, Bloom, & Roth)] (https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0195380533/)
[Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology: Neuroscientific Basis and Practical Applications (4e)] (https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1107686466/)
Haha dude, I can tell you're taking stimulants. :P
I think you would really enjoy these two books if you don't already reference them:
I love these. I have read Essential Psychopharmacology cover to cover and it's such a great introduction. I used to reference the prescriber's guide all the time, especially when I was taking an MAOI. I was feeling so bad when I saw you typed all that stuff because you could have left it at "neurotoxicity risks" and I would have gotten it, but you're clearly into it, and other people find it helpful.
One thing though: 2-3 hours for Vyvanse to kick in? That's a joke, to me. I can't believe so many people accept that?
I recommend Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology
Good points /u/westlax34! Geriatric psychopharmacolgy/polypharmacy can be quite daunting indeed! (I found a nice supplementary reference text to echo your thoughts which I'll mention below).
/u/abutali, in addition to /u/tlbtc's suggestion of First Aid for Psychiatry being a notable companion, I personally found for diving real deep into psychopharmacology nuances (e.g. for presentations/curiosity), anything written by Dr. Stephen M. Stahl to be amazing! This is far from being a mandatory must and certainly not worth an out-of-pocket medical student expense whatsoever unless you're entering the field of Psychiatry at some future point (e.g. residency) - if interested, see if you can find/borrow a copy from your medical school library/etc:
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Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology: Neuroscientific Basis and Practical Applications
https://www.amazon.com/Stahls-Essential-Psychopharmacology-Neuroscientific-Applications/dp/1107686466
Not a TV show, but a book I bought that I really like is Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology. Not a light read, but very accessible without already being knowledgeable on how drugs work.
Here is the desktop version of your link
I liked Paxil (paroxetine). It is the most potent SSRI. I think I even took it with bupropion for a while. Why did I stop Paxil? I developed flat affect.
Alas, I've never found an SSRI, TCA, atypical, or MAOI that has much effect on dopamine.
Let me direct you at this point over to r/Anhedonia_Recovery to read my comment on this post - Pramipexole (Mirapex) For Anhedonia And Treatment-Resistant Depression: Guidelines, Studies, And Success Stories..
The drugs that have effects on dopamine agonism are pramipexole (Mirapex) and ropinirole (Requip). Of the two, pramipexole looks more promising for depression (and anhedonia). Pramipexole is primarily a D3 agonist, with some D2 and D4 agonism. Pramipexole is primarily a Parkinson's drug; ropinirole is for restless leg syndrome.
Anyhow, I think you may be overthinking things a bit, like the other commenter suggested. It may be that "Drug X" looks great on paper, but if you take it and it makes you nauseous, you won't like it. The clinical experience of your psychiatrist is also important for figuring out the right treatment for you.
Otherwise, get a copy of Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology: Neuroscientific Basis and Practical Applications 4th Edition by Stephen M. Stahl. I think you'll like it. You can reference some of it online at Stahl Online.