This book provides a reference guide describing the current status of medication in all major psychiatric and neurological indications, together with comparisons of pharmacological treatment strategies in clinical settings in Europe, USA, Japan and China. In addition, it highlights herbal medicine as used in China and Japan, as well as complementary medicine and nutritional aspects. This novel approach offers international readers a global approach in a single dedicated publication and is also a valuable resource for anyone interested in comparing treatments for psychiatric disorders in three different cultural areas.

There are three volumes devoted to Basic Principles and General Aspects, offering a general overview of psychopharmacotherapy (Vol. 1); Classes, Drugs and Special Aspects covering the role of psychotropic drugs in the field of psychiatry and neurology (Vol. 2) and Applied Psychopharmacotherapy focusing on applied psychopharmacotherapy (Vol. 3). These books are invaluable to psychiatrists, neurologists, neuroscientists, medical practitioners and clinical psychologists.

Peter Riederer was a Professor and head of Clinical Neurochemisty at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Clinical Neurobiology in Vienna, Austria, (1976-1986) and at the Clinic and Policlinic of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics & Psychotherapy, University Hospital Würzburg, Germany from 1986-2010. He is currently Senior Professor at this clinic and Adjunct Professor at the Department and Research Unit of Psychiatry, Syddansk Universitet, Odense, Denmark. His expertise includes the pathophysiology of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, and he has a special interest in treatment strategies for these disorders as well as for psychiatric disorders. He co-developed the context of treating PD with L-deprenyl (selegiline) from 1974 onward and elucidated the mechanism of action of memantine in 1989. He has more than 1,100 publications in the field of Neuroscience and was the most cited chemist in the field of medicine in 2004. Together with Gerd Laux, he edited the series of six volumes of NeuroPsychopharmacotherapy with several updated versions.

Gerd Laux is Director of the Institute of Psychological Medicine in Bavaria and a professor at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University of Munich, Germany. He has worked as a clinician at different hospitals at the Universities of Dallas (Texas USA), Wuerzburg and Bonn (Germany). He has authored more than 450 articles and book chapters and written or edited more than 35 books in the field of psychiatry and psychopharmacology. He has been principal investigator of various clinical trials and serves as a consultant for scientific institutions and is editor-in-chief of the journal Psychopharmakotherapie.

Toshi Nagatsu was a professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology, Nagoya University, and Fujita Health University. He worked in the USA at National Institutes of Health, University of Southern California, and Roche Institute of Molecular Biology. His work focuses on neurochemistry and molecular biology of catecholamine-synthesizing enzymes, especially tyrosine hydroxylase and the cofactor tetrahydrobiopterin, and their human genes. He was co-discoverer of tyrosine hydroxylase. He also worked on catecholamine-related enzymes in the molecular mechanism of Parkinson's disease.

Weidong Le, M.D., Ph.D., is a neurologist/scientist. He graduated from Shanghai 2nd Medical University with a doctoral degree, and completed his postdoctoral training and became Professor of Neurology at Baylor College of Medicine. Currently he is the Director of the Center for Translational Research on Neurological Diseases, and Vice President of 1st Affiliated Hospital, Dalian Medical University. He is an affiliate member of Houston Methodist Research Institute and the Chinese Academy of Science. He has published over 200 SCI papers in peer review journals and 7 scientific books, and serves as board member or associate editor for 8 international journals.

Christian Riederer is working in the field of scientific publishing and scientific information. He has been serving as Managing Editor of the Journal of Neural Transmission, published by SpringerNature, since 2003 and currently directs the scientific office of the World Association for Stress-Related and Anxiety Disorders (WASAD). Since 2004, he has organized more than 50 medical historical projects in neurology and psychiatry and is curating a large collection of historical material on movement disorders and psychiatric conditions.