Clinicians on the front lines of neuropsychiatry require a resource that is eminently practical, as well as comprehensive—one that provides critical guidance at the bedside and in the consulting room. Psychiatry and neurology residents preparing for the daunting American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology certification examination need an efficient way to learn both basic and advanced assessment and treatment techniques in their chosen subspecialties. Essentials of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, a carefully and thoughtfully distilled abridgement of the comprehensive American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, meets the needs of both groups.

As one reviewer put it, the Essentials volume, designed to be a more accessible and portable version of the “big book,” represents “nothing less than the presentation of the neuroscientific basis of psychiatry.” One advantage of the resulting revision cycle is the opportunity to update more frequently, ensuring that each iteration reflects the cutting edge in research and practice. Newly revised to mirror both the significant changes in the 5th edition of the big book, published in 2008, and advances since that publication, the Essentials offers a number of useful features:

• Additions to reference lists, succinct revisions, and several informative new illustrations distill and update the Textbook’s 5th edition of 2008
• A concise opening chapter on Fundamentals of Cellular Neurobiology provides the reader with the scientific framework necessary to fully understand and contextualize the chapters on specific disorders and treatments that follow
• Concise, updated text assists readers in reviewing key topics, including neuropsychiatric aspects of human immunodeficiency virus infection, neuropsychiatric aspects of dementias associated with motor dysfunction, clinical and functional imaging in neuropsychiatry, and epidemiological and genetic aspects of neuropsychiatric disorders.
• New in this edition of the Essentials, Recommended Readings sections provide a quick reference to the most important literature on each topic.

The book boasts an impressive roster of acclaimed clinicians and researchers in neuropsychiatry, who deliver impeccably documented and imminently useful chapters on the key principles of diagnosis and treatment of patients with neuropsychiatric disorders. As the growth in neuropsychiatric knowledge—truly astonishing over the last decade—continues unabated, the twin resources of Textbook and Essentials become not just useful, but indispensable. No psychiatrist, neurologist, or resident in psychiatry or neurology should be without these critical volumes.