The British Medical Association’s (BMA) Book Awards in September honored two American Psychiatric Publishing (APP) books.
The BMA says its Book Awards aim to “ encourage and reward excellence in medical publishing across 21 categories.” The two APP books, Disaster Psychiatry: Readiness, Evaluation, and Treatment and Textbook of Traumatic Brain Injury, Second Edition, were among the “Highly Commended” finalists within the “Best Book in Psychiatry” category. Only 10 other books, including the winner, made the commended list.
Disaster Psychiatry: Readiness, Evaluation, and Treatment coedited by Frederick Stoddard, Jr., M.D., Anand Pandya, M.D., and Craig Katz, M.D., draws on experiences from psychiatrists and other clinicians who have organized frontline mental health services and on peer-reviewed scientific research to provide the knowledge needed to respond quickly and appropriately after a disaster. One BMA reviewer described Disaster Psychiatry as “one of the best texts I have read in the field,” and “well written with good case scenarios to illustrate each section.” Reviewers also commended the book as being invaluable for psychiatry educators and students.
Approximately 400 people attended the awards event, including Stoddard. “The sense of dedication to the task was very strong,” Stoddard told Psychiatric News, “and I think this award is likely to give us some further motivation to continue the work and expand it. My coeditors and I, and our contributors from the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry and from Disaster Psychiatry Outreach were delighted to be so honored.”
Textbook of Traumatic Brain Injury, Second Edition, by Jonathan Silver, M.D., Thomas McAllister, M.D., and Stuart Yudofsky, M.D., also made it to the short list for finalists in the same category. As an updated edition, the book includes new chapters on epidemiology, neuropathology, and genetics of traumatic brain injury (TBI), TBI in the military, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which emphasizes the common cooccurrence of TBI and PTSD in both combat and other settings.
The BMA reviewer praised the book, commenting that “its comprehensiveness and well-researched and written scholarly texts are the book’s great accomplishments [to help] its readers to understand its subject matter/contents…. This is a highly recommended work.”
“I really had the sense that the British Medical Association was doing its best effort to advance the medical profession,” said Stoddard.
