Mental Health is a Verb: A Pocket Guide to Mental Health for Nursing Students

Reviewed by Joseph Cusimano, Assistant Professor, Shenandoah University on 4/1/23

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

This textbook attempts to provide a superficial overview of pertinent issues in the realm of psychiatric nursing care, written for an undergraduate nursing audience. While the book does span several topics, divided between "foundational concepts" in the first half and descriptions of notable disease states in the second half, there are some areas that could benefit from additional coverage. For example, Sigmund Freud is singled out, but other key figures like Carl Jung are not mentioned. The initial description of electroconvulsive therapy is also lacking, with surprising mention of the extremely rare practice of psychosurgery. The module on "childhood disorders" covers ADHD, ID, and ASD, but not other DSM diagnoses seen in child and adolescent psychiatry practices (e.g. oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder). The text never addresses gender dysphoria.

Content Accuracy rating: 1

While the textbook does contain a lot of factual content, there are a number of concerning errors. The most severe inaccuracies are in the realm of psychopharmacology, including use of incorrect terminology, inaccuracies, oversimplification, and even dangerous information (e.g., the authors state, “If tardive dyskinesia is recognized, stop the antipsychotic and notify the provider” (Module 4: p. 47), which is dangerous. While tardive dyskinesia may be irreversible if not addressed promptly, nurses should not instruct patients to abruptly stop taking the medication before talking to their physician, as this may result in psychiatric decompensation). In addition, there is a faint bias against medications in the textbook, such as in the statement, “drugs alone cannot cure mental illness” (Module 4: p. 38), which is misleading because (1) many mental illnesses cannot be cured at all and (2) some patient do indeed achieve recovery with the use of psychotropic medications alone in the absence of other treatment modalities. It would be more appropriate to acknowledge, e.g., while medications are often helpful in the treatment of mental illness, they do not always work, and many patients may require more than one medication trial or combinations of medications. The errors are too numerous to list individually, suffice to say that this textbook would benefit immensely from expert review and editing by a psychiatrist or psychiatric pharmacist (of which I am the latter).

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

I have no significant concerns regarding the textbook's likelihood to become obsolete within a short period of time.

Clarity rating: 3

The prose reads as overly familiar/informal, which may damage credibility with readers. Several sections could be made more clear or introduced with context, especially for an undergraduate audience. E.g., the section about the “Sunrise Enabler” (Module 2: p. 19) is not clear (one has to view the link provided to discover that this is a pictorial representation of Leininger’s theoretical framework) and Sigmund Freud is referenced without any formal introduction. There are instances of inaccurate terminology (e.g., the term “extrapyramidal side effects” is abbreviated with “EPS” when it should be “extrapyramidal symptoms”, Module 4: p. 45; “parkinsonism” is used instead of the correct term “pseudoparkinsonism”, Module 4: p. 46, which is important because "pseudoparkinsonism" reflects the fact that the symptoms are not arising from the pathology of true Parkinson’s disease; "DSM-V-TR" is used instead of "DSM-5-TR" in one place) and terminology without adequate context (e.g., the term "neuroleptic" is introduced without its etymology).

Consistency rating: 3

The textbook is fairly consistent, though there are some notable errors. E.g., the textbook uses both the terms “mental illness” and “mental disorders"; as “disorder” implies that one’s mental health has risen to the level of an “illness” (causing clinically significant distress), it would be simpler to rely on the term “mental illness” throughout instead of “mental disorder”. There's inconsistent use of the terms "complementary alternative medicine" vs. "complementary/alternative medicine" vs. "complementary and alternative medicine". The text is also inconsistently referenced, with many non-scientific sources.

Modularity rating: 5

I have no significant concerns regarding the textbook's modularity.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

I have no significant concerns regarding the textbook's organization.

Interface rating: 4

There were only minor problems with the PDF copy that I used. There were links that did not work or were missing. There were a couple formatting issues, including one accidental lack of bolding in a module title (#11) and a random space character that was highlighted.

Grammatical Errors rating: 3

I found a number of minor grammatical errors throughout, as well as sections that seemed oddly worded. Common errors included inappropriate capitalization (e.g., of generic medication names) and incorrect comma placement.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

Use of the term “the Devil” (Module 1: p. 12) gives credence towards a Christian worldview in which a capital “D” Devil exists. Otherwise, I did not note any specific concerns. It may be helpful to highlight some cultural issues (e.g., idioms of distress, cultural syndromes, or differences in how symptoms may present to members of one culture).

Comments

I do not quite understand what the authors meant when they titled the text, "Mental Health is a Verb".