Contemporary Treatments in Neurology

Abstract

edited by Neil Scolding, 446 pp., ill., Oxford, UK, Butterworth–Heinemann, 2001, $59.95 They say one should not judge a book by its cover. It is difficult, however, to ignore the cover design of Contemporary Treatments in Neurology , edited by Neil Scolding (who also had a hand in the cover design). The cover illustrations highlight past, present, and future neurologic treatments, and are set against a background text from 1807 entitled Primitive Physic, or an Easy and Natural Method of Curing Most Diseases by John Wesley. Although Scolding’s book has a more humble title, he makes it clear in the preface that the reader can expect to find an authoritative, evidence-based account of current and future treatments in neurologic disorders. In this respect, the book fulfills its promise. There are 30 or so contributors, with the majority from the United Kingdom and the remainder from continental Europe. The American reader will come across some occasional pharmacologic and stylistic differences (such as the liberal use of the term “fits” for seizures). The book opens with a useful chapter on the design, analysis, and interpretation of clinical trials in neurology, although for the “busy neurologist,” to whom the book is clearly directed, more emphasis on interpretation of trials would have been welcome. The remainder of the book is divided into sections on degenerative diseases of the nervous system, inflammatory disorders, metabolic diseases, vascular disease, and episodic neurologic diseases. The section on degenerative diseases includes individual chapters on the dementias, diseases of the basal ganglia, motor neuron disease, and a chapter on the management of cervical spondylosis. The section on inflammatory diseases includes chapters on MS, peripheral nerve, neuromuscular junction, and muscle disorders, as well as chapters on neurologic manifestations of systemic inflammatory diseases and neurologic infections. There is an outstandingly clear discussion …