The HANDBOOK is a comprehensive text covering nearly every psychiatric, neurologic, and general medical condition capable of affecting mental status. It is divided into 30 sections patterned after topic headings in the DSM-IV. Within each section is a series of chapters that briefly describe an overview, time of onset, clinical features, course, complications, etiology, differential diagnosis, and treatment of a given disorder. A short list of references follows every chapter, and many chapters include radiographs that show characteristics of the disease process. The final section covers psychopharmacology, emphasizing medical features such as pharmacokinetics, side effects, drug-drug interactions, and complications of overdose.

一本内容广泛的参考书，涵盖几乎所有精神病学、神经病学和应激心理状态下可发生的内科病症。书中按DSM-IV中的主题分为30个部分，每个部分由数个章节组成，讲解该病症的概论、发病时间、临床特点、病程、并发症、病因学、鉴别诊断和治疗。每章后面都附有简短的参考文献列表，部分章节内还有X光片演示该病的进展特点。书的最后一部分为精神药理学，强调药代动力学、副作用、药物相互作用、药物过量的并发症等药物特点。

New topics/chapters include: * Fetal Alcohol Syndrome * Encopresis * Schizophreniform Disorder * Brief Psychotic Disorder * Jactatio Nocturna Capitis * Schizoid Personality Disorder * Avoidant Personality Disorder * Supersensitivity Psychosis * Rabbit Syndrome * Amnesia * Catatonia * Alien Hand Syndrome * Environmental Dependency Syndrome * Postictal Psychosis * Psychosis of Forced Normalization * Interictal Psychosis * Interictal Personality Syndrome * Fronto-temporal Dementia * Cortico-Basal Ganglionic Degeneration * Multiple System Atrophy * Neurocanthocytosis * Dentatorubropallidoluysian Atrophy * Hashimoto's encephalopathy * New-Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease * Gertsmann-Straussler-Scheinker Disease * Fahr's Syndrome