Book Review: A Spectrum Approach to Mood Disorders

James Phelps’ new book, A Spectrum Approach to Mood Disorders: Not Fully Bipolar But Not Unipolar—Practical Management, is written for professionals, not laymen. I have some familiarity with bipolar disorder and its causes, symptoms, and treatments. However, I am not a professional and this book often goes beyond my ability to comprehend. Dr. Phelps has been treating patients and studying and writing about mood disorders for over 25 years, but he makes assumptions that the reader has a higher level of experience or training, and it makes this book difficult for amateurs to fully appreciate. The basic premise of Dr. Phelps’ book is that there is a broad spectrum of mood disorders, not a simple black and white diagnosis. A black and white diagnosis asks the question, “Is s/he bipolar?” and labels the patient accordingly. By contrast, evaluating a patient along a spectrum of severity acknowledges that there are several inbetween conclusions that can be made. The author suggests that 40% of disorders could be considered mid-spectrum. But even three categories is not enough. Picture instead the color spectrum to get an idea of how patients can be evaluated, with very slight differentiation between levels of diagnosis. The importance of this distinction is that treatment approaches can be more precisely applied by professionals who understand and value these distinctions. The author addresses many topics using the spectrum approach. He describes the distinctions a...
Source: Psych Central - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Antidepressants Anxiety Attention Deficit Disorder Bipolar Book Reviews Borderline Personality Depression Disorders General Mood Stabilizers Postpartum Depression Professional Psychiatry Psychological Assessment Psychology PT Source Type: news