Best Psychiatry Books of 2025

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Psychiatry books are essential for mental health professionals and anyone interested in understanding the human mind. These books cover a wide range of topics, including mental disorders, psychotherapy techniques, and neuroscience research. They provide a comprehensive understanding of the human psyche and offer valuable insights into the complexities of the human mind. Whether you're a student, clinician, or simply interested in the field of psychiatry, these books are an invaluable resource that can enhance your knowledge and understanding of mental health. With a diverse range of titles available, there is a psychiatry book for everyone.
At a Glance: Our Top Picks
Top 10 Psychiatry Books
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR) is a comprehensive and updated resource for mental health clinicians and researchers. It includes revised text, updated diagnostic criteria, and new disorder codes, such as Prolonged Grief Disorder. The book also features over 70 modified criteria sets and considerations of the impact of racism and discrimination on mental disorders. With contributions from over 200 subject matter experts, it provides a common language for clinicians involved in the diagnosis and study of mental disorders. Overall, DSM-5-TR is an essential guide for anyone working in the field of mental health.
DBT® Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets
The "DBT® Skills Training Handouts and Worksheets, Second Edition" is a valuable resource for clients who are learning dialectical behavior therapy skills, and those who treat them. This updated manual provides more than 225 user-friendly handouts and worksheets, which have been demonstrated effective in treating a wide range of psychological and emotional problems. The book's flexible approach allows practitioners and treatment adopters to tailor the skills to meet their clients' specific needs. Mental health professionals will also benefit from the author's DBT® Skills Training Manual, Second Edition, which provides complete instructions for teaching the skills. Overall, this book is an essential tool for anyone interested in learning and implementing DBT skills.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy
The Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy: Basic Principles, Protocols, and Procedures is an authoritative and comprehensive book on EMDR therapy. This revised and expanded edition covers over 15 years of important advances in therapy and research, including additional applications for complex trauma, addictions, and post-disaster response. The book provides training materials, vivid vignettes, transcripts, and reproducible forms. It is recognized as a best practice for the treatment of PTSD by various health care associations and institutes around the world. Overall, this book is an essential resource for clinicians interested in EMDR therapy and its applications.
Desk Reference to the Diagnostic Criteria
The Desk Reference to the Diagnostic Criteria From DSM-5-TR is a useful guide for mental health professionals to diagnose mental disorders using the fully revised diagnostic classification and criteria from DSM-5-TR. It's an affordable and concise companion to the authoritative reference manual, providing quick access to essential information. This reference book is designed to supplement DSM-5-TR and is an invaluable resource for clinicians to diagnose mental disorders effectively. It covers prevalent to the least common disorders, making it a comprehensive guide. Overall, this book is an excellent resource for any mental health professional looking to integrate DSM-5-TR diagnostic criteria into their diagnoses.
Prescriber's Guide: Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology
The Seventh Edition of Prescriber's Guide: Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology is an indispensable guide for all mental health prescribers. With nine new drugs and updated profiles, the book covers important new indications and formulations of existing drugs. The book's easy-to-use, full-colour template-driven navigation system combines evidence-based data with clinically informed advice to support everyone who is prescribing in the field of mental health. Stephen M. Stahl, the author, is a renowned Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, and a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at the University of California, Riverside. Overall, this book is a must-have for mental health professionals and a valuable resource in the field of psychopharmacology.
DBT Skills Training Manual
The DBT Skills Training Manual is an essential resource for practitioners looking to implement dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) skills training. Marsha M. Linehan, the developer of DBT, provides complete instructions for orienting clients to DBT and teaching them a range of mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance skills. The book includes reproducible teaching notes and can be supplemented with handouts and worksheets available for download online. The second edition features revised handouts and worksheets, expanded modules, and curricula for running skills training groups with specific populations. The comprehensive nature of the book makes it an invaluable tool for anyone looking to implement DBT skills training.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR) is the most comprehensive and current resource for mental health clinicians and researchers. With contributions from over 200 experts, this four-color volume includes fully revised text for each disorder, new codes to flag and monitor suicidal behavior, and a new disorder for diagnosis. It is an essential resource for physicians and health professionals, including psychologists, counselors, nurses, occupational and rehabilitation therapists, social workers, and forensic and legal specialists. The DSM-5-TR is the most definitive resource for the diagnosis and classification of mental disorders.
Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology: Neuroscientific Basis and Practical Applications
The fifth edition of Stahl's Essential Psychopharmacology is an essential textbook for students and mental health professionals. The book covers the latest research and uses reader-friendly illustrations to help non-specialists understand complex biological mechanisms. The new edition includes over 500 new or refreshed figures, an intuitive color scheme, and expanded information on medical uses of cannabis and hallucinogen assisted psychotherapy. The book is organized around biological mechanisms, making it unique among other volumes on psychopharmacology. Overall, the book is an excellent resource for anyone seeking to understand and utilize current therapeutics in the field of psychopharmacology.
Internal Family Systems Therapy
This revised edition of Internal Family Systems Therapy by Richard Schwartz and Martha Sweezy provides an authoritative presentation of the IFS therapy, which is practiced worldwide. The book explains how the subpersonalities or “parts” of each individual's psyche relate to each other, and how polarization among parts can lead to emotional suffering. The book is an essential guide for implementing IFS with clients struggling with trauma, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, addiction, and other behavioral problems. The authors provide practical guidelines for treating families and couples, making the book a valuable resource for clinicians. Overall, the book is an excellent resource for anyone interested in learning about IFS therapy and its practical applications.
Kaplan & Sadock’s Synopsis of Psychiatry
Kaplan & Sadock’s Synopsis of Psychiatry is a trusted clinical psychiatric resource for health care professionals worldwide. Its twelfth edition has been reorganized to be more useful and easier to navigate, with clinically relevant material at the beginning of the book, clearer headings and summaries, and numerous case studies. The book also presents current treatment methods, including descriptions of modern psychotherapeutic techniques, and includes descriptive tables for all relevant DSM-5 and ICD-10 diagnoses. Overall, it is an excellent resource for anyone looking to enhance their knowledge of psychiatry and psychopharmacology.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. What books do psychiatrists use?
The DSM, also known as “psychiatry's bible”, is the go-to source for psychiatrists, psychologists, and clinical social workers in the United States for identification and diagnosis of mental illness.
2. What are the basics of psychiatry?
Psychiatry is the branch of medicine focused on the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mental, emotional and behavioral disorders. A psychiatrist is a medical doctor (an M.D. or D.O.) who specializes in mental health, including substance use disorders.
3. Does psychiatry have high burnout?
Some studies suggest the rate of burnout is highest among medical students, lower among housestaff and less frequent among early career physicians (Dyrbye, 2014). Rates of burnout among specialties range from 38% to 73%, with psychiatrists showing a 48% rate of burnout (Shanafelt, et al, 2015).
4. What book do doctors use for mental illness?
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is the handbook used by health care professionals in the United States and much of the world as the authoritative guide to the diagnosis of mental disorders. DSM contains descriptions, symptoms and other criteria for diagnosing mental disorders.
During our psychiatry book research, we found 1,200+ psychiatry book products and shortlisted 10 quality products. We collected and analyzed 66,898 customer reviews through our big data system to write the psychiatry books list. We found that most customers choose psychiatry books with an average price of $98.47.

Wilson Cook is a talented writer who has an MFA in creative writing from Williams College and has published more than 50 books acquired by hundreds of thousands of people from various countries by now. He is an inveterate reading lover as he has read a vast amount of books since childhood.