Book excerpt: Any candidate for the MRCPsych or equivalent postgraduate examinations will feel challenged by the daunting breadth of the syllabus as well as by the level of detail required. Revision Notes in Psychiatry responds to that challenge by comprehensively presenting key up-to-date information across the whole spectrum of psychiatry and its scientific basis, within a clear structure. Since the highly successful publication of the first edition of Revision Notes in Psychiatry, there have been many new discoveries within most fields of psychiatry, and the subsequent updating of the MRCPsych is reflected in the second edition.