Textbook of Clinical Neuropharmacology and Therapeutics

Textbook of Clinical Neuropharmacology and Therapeutics

Harold L. Klawans, Christopher G. Goetz, Caroline M. Tanner

New York: Raven Press, 686 pp, 1991

Neurology has become more a therapeutic than a diagnostic specialty, and a book on neuropharmacological treatment is timely. Two introductory chapters on the principles of neuropharmacology are followed by 46 chapters organized along disease lines. Each chapter presents a brief summary of the disease and then deals with its treatment, concentrating on the specific drugs used, their alleged efficacy and their toxicity. Other treatments are discussed to varying degrees, such as plasma exchange, carotid endarterectomy, physiotherapy and general medical and nursing care.

The strength of this book is its organization. The chapter on drug treatment for neurological problems during pregnancy was especially useful. The addition of a chapter on bacterial meningitis is an improvement over the first edition.

This book suffers from the variations in style and depth common to multi-authored books. The chapters are not all current; some were reprinted from a publication which appeared 1990, and the chapter on HIV covers developments to 1989. There is a chapter on migraines, but little space devoted to the management of other headaches.

This book will be a useful source of therapeutic information for neurologists and internists and addition to any clinical neurological library.