Pharmacovigilance in Psychiatry

Edoardo Spina is Professor of Pharmacology at the Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Messina, Messina, Italy. He is currently Head of the School of Specialisation in Pharmacology, co-ordinator of the PhD Course in Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychopharmacology and President of the Ethics Committee of the district area of Messina. His primary area of scientific interest is clinical neuropsychopharmacology, and has been involved in studies on the pharmacokinetics and drug interactions of CNS drugs, therapeutic drug monitoring, pharmacovigilance and pharmacoepidemiology of psychotropic drugs, and pharmacogenetics in psychiatry.

Prof. Spina has authored 220 articles in international journals, 1 book and 22 chapters in scientific books. He has been a member of the Executive Committee of the European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Th erapeutics (EACPT) since 2011. He is also Associate Editor of Frontiers in Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics and a member of the editorial board of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Basic & Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology.

The first authoritative textbook specifically addressing issues of the field, this book delivers a focused discussion on several themes in psychiatry while providing a sound background on pharmacovigilance.
Internationally-recognised researchers, clinicians and pharmacovigilance experts contributed to this textbook, giving it the benefit of different perspectives and years of experience. Pharmacovigilance in psychiatry provides a thorough introduction to this field but goes on to explore advanced themes such as methodologies and resources used for pharmacovigilance in psychiatry, challenges as well as most recent developments to this field, making it suitable for under-graduates, graduate and post-doctoral students and persons working pharmacovigilance who seek to broaden their knowledge on this subject.

First textbook to address the role of pharmacovigilance in psychiatry, providing readers with comprehensive information and insight on this topic

1. Introduction: History of pharmacovigilance in psychiatry.- 2. Adverse drug reactions: definition and pathogenesis.- 3. Methodologies for pharmacovigilance monitoring of psychotropic drugs.- 4. The role of prescription event monitoring in pharmacovigilance of psychotropic drugs.- 5. The role of healthcare databases in pharmacovigilance of psychotropic drugs.- 6. Monitoring of plasma concentrations of psychotropic drugs in pharmacovigilance.- 7. The role of pharmacogenetics in pharmacovigilance of psychotropic drugs.- 8. Safety and tolerability of antidepressants.- 9. Safety and tolerability of antipsychotics.- 10. Safety and tolerability of anxiolytics/sedative hypnotics.- 11. Safety and tolerability of mood stabilizers.- 12. Safety and tolerability of medications for ADHD.- 13. Safety of psychotropic drugs in children and adolescents.- 14. Safety of psychotropic drugs in the elderly(Safety of psychotropic drugs in the elderly.- 15. Safety of psychotropic drugs in pregnancy and breastfeeding.