Book excerpt: This comprehensive update of the popular second edition of the authors' Concise Guide to Women's Mental Health provides the latest evidence-based medical and psychiatric facts related to the assessment and treatment of women with psychiatric disorders -- particularly as women pass through reproductive transitions or experience hormonal challenges -- reviewing the ways in which these times are integral to gender-sensitive case formulations, diagnoses, and treatment planning. The Clinical Manual of Women's Mental Health emphasizes evidence-based medicine and reflects the authors' expanding clinical experience. Key features include Extensively revised chapters on the use of psychiatric medications during pregnancy and breast-feeding, abortion and contraception, and the use of hormones during menopause. A meticulous review of the use of psychopharmacological agents to treat women at important reproductive transition points. Numerous and thorough references and citations from the latest peer-reviewed journals. More than 50 carefully annotated tables and charts -- especially those on the use of psychiatric medications in pregnancy and breast-feeding. Summary passages that enable readers to quickly gain access to important evidence-based data that will inform their practice. Asserting that a multidisciplinary, comprehensive approach -- one that incorporates both psychotherapy and careful attention to social needs -- is integral to successful treatment, the authors of Clinical Manual of Women's Mental Health discuss the latest data on women's mental health, including premenstrual dysphoric disorder, hormonal contraception and effects on mood, mood/anxiety/psychotic disorders during pregnancy and postpartum, the effect of breast-feeding on the treatment of postpartum disorders, perimenopause and menopause, postmenopause, psychological implications of infertility, abortion and miscarriage, female-specific cancers, and gender issues in the treatment of mental illness. Easily accessed by clinicians at every level of medicine, psychiatry, obstetrics-gynecology, psychology, and social work, the Clinical Manual of Women's Mental Health is best used as an ancillary text for students, interns, residents, and graduated clinicians and researchers in psychiatry, family medicine, internal medicine, internal medicine subspecialties, and obstetrics-gynecology. Finally, lay women with psychiatric conditions who wish to better understand how they can make wise decisions regarding their care and well-being as they face important issues such as pregnancy, breast-feeding, and hormone therapy will welcome this updated edition of the Clinical Manual of Women's Mental Health.