Psychiatry and Pedopsychiatry

The textbook, Psychiatry and Pedopsychiatry, provides a comprehensive overview of psychiatry. Unlike other textbooks, it also focuses on pedopsychiatry, which is very important in the context of this specialization gaining independence in the Czech Republic.

The book systematically covers mental disorders from the perspectives of their clinical record file, epidemiology, etiopathogenesis, examination methods, the course of illnesses and their treatment. It also includes interesting topics which are not commonly treated in textbooks, despite being crucial for clinical practice and important for students’ general knowledge, such as

• psychiatry of somatic diseases and psychiatry of consultation,

• social rehabilitation,

• the structure of the discipline and a proposal for a needed reform,

• urgent states in psychiatry.

The text also includes an important chapter on the structure of psychiatric care in the Czech Republic and on upcoming changes. The treatment of mental patients should be gradually transferred from large psychiatric hospitals, which are often far away from the patient’s homes, to their natural living and social environment. The scholars also paid special attention to the chapter on various methods used in psychotherapy, a discipline which has been competing poorly in clinical practice against the fast and cheap pharmacotherapy.