HANDBOOK OF NEUROLOGICAL REHABILITATION, 2ND EDITION

Abstract

HANDBOOK OF NEUROLOGICAL REHABILITATION, 2nd edition Edited by Greenwood, Barnes, McMillan and Ward 2003. Hove: Psychology Press Price £120. ISBN 0‐86377‐757‐0 Neurological rehabilitation is an important and fascinating sub‐speciality, which is attracting increasing interest from clinicians and managers alike. Epidemiological studies show that about 40% of significant chronic disability is due to neurological disorders. It has been argued that if you ranked hospital expenditure by disease, stroke—as a common condition necessitating admission and entailing long stays with heavy staff input—would be top of the list. However, awareness and the size and cost of a health issue is not sufficient to attract clinicians to train in the area, develop research, set up services, or even read the literature. How up to date are you the reader in your knowledge on managing smoking cessation? For a sub‐speciality to grow and flourish, it needs a sympathetic and fertile environment. Neurological rehabilitation enjoys this now for three main reasons. The first concerns developments in neurology. In the past neurology could be charged with being mainly a diagnostic speciality. Neurologists had widely acknowledged skills in history taking, including interpreting obscure symptoms, and they were renowned for complex examinations, demonstrating their ability to elicit esoteric neurological signs. These skills aimed to answer the two fundamental questions for diagnosis: …