The Balkan Nephropathy

This book attempts the awesome task of compiling a fairly complete bibliography of the clinical and experimental publications through 1964 on phenothiazines, butyrophenones, meprobamate "like" agents, and MAO inhibitors. Approximately two thirds of this book is bibliography with the remaining one third a narrative which is little more than an anotated bibliography. Both sections forsake critical evaluation for comprehensiveness. There is no attempt to emphasize the most pertinent studies or clarify contradictory results and consequently the reader is left with little more than a mass of seemingly random facts. The chapter on "The Biochemical Basis of Mental Disease" exemplifies this; it is almost an appendage with little effort to correlate this data with the preceding sections on the psychopharmacologic agents themselves. The studies noted in this book demonstrate the gap between the sophistication of the laboratory studies on psychopharmacologic agents and the naivete of some of the clinical studies (not to mention the low correlation between efficacy in the laboratory setting and in actual clinical trials). The very mass of data presented in this volume (2,000 studies on chlorpromazine alone) demonstrates the importance of communicating this information effectively to the clinician. A recent study showed that most physicians' drug administration habits are influenced in order of frequency by (1) the example of teachers and peers, (2) testimonials from colleagues, (3) extrapolations from specific studies, (4) convenience, (5) persuasiveness of advertising and manufacturer's representatives, and (6) availability of liberal samples. Undeniably, the present volume fulfills its function as a source book, but in view of the brevity and uncritical nature of the presentation, the reader will still have to consult the original sources to evaluate the findings cited. Hopefully, future volumes will attempt to evaluate and synthesize the data in this important area.