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Clozapine is the only effective antipsychotic for treatment resistant schizophrenia and other severe mental illnesses, but is underutilized partly due to clinician unfamiliarity with monitoring principles and side-effect management. This Handbook provides clinically focussed approaches and logic for clinicians to manage clozapine-treated patients.

Clinicians recognize that monitoring psychotropic levels provides invaluable information to optimize therapy and track treatment adherence, but they lack formal training specifically focused on the use of plasma antipsychotic levels for these purposes. As new technologies emerge to rapidly provide these results, the opportunity to integrate this information into clinical care will grow. This practical handbook clarifies confusing concepts in the literature on use of antipsychotic levels, providing clear explanations for the logic underlying clinically relevant concepts such as the therapeutic threshold and the point of futility, and how these apply to individual antipsychotics. It offers accessible information on the expected correlation between dosages and trough levels, and also provides a clear explanation of how to use antipsychotic levels for monitoring oral antipsychotic adherence, and methods to help clinicians differentiate between poor adherence and variations in drug metabolism. An essential resource for psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, and mental health professionals worldwide.

The current suicide public health crisis and advances in clinical practice have increased the need for clear, evidence-informed guidance on suicide prevention in healthcare. This clinical suicide prevention handbook is an essential resource for mental health and primary care professionals, and any practitioner aiming to ensure their practice is up-to-date, patient-centred and consistent with the most current standards of care. Starting with a summary of the science and public health model of suicide, the book offers quick tips for suicide screening, risk assessment, interventions, and follow-up communication. It discusses medicolegal risk management, how health systems can prevent suicide and provides highly specialized guidance for clinicians following the loss of a patient to suicide. Focused sections include incorporating social media into care plans, telemedicine, issues related to culture and race/ethnicity, and working with specific populations. It introduces an integrated, prevention-oriented approach to suicide prevention, incorporating realistic supports, foreseeable changes, and strategies.