Hong Kong J Psychiatry 2003;13(4):31
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Brain Injury and Mental Retardation: Psychopharmacology and Neuropsychiatry
Editor: Gualtieri CT.
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia, 2002. US$89.95; pp509; ISBN 0-7817-3473-8
This book is a good up-to-date summary on topics related to the psychopharmacological and neuropsychiatric aspects of brain injury and mental retardation. Traumatic brain injuries and developmental handicaps are 2 of the most common conditions in neuropsychiatry. However, scientific information tends to be scattered in the literature of several disciplines including psychiatry, neurology, genetics, developmental medicine, neuropsychology, behavioural psychology, and neuropharmacology.
This book has an easy-access format, describing cognitive, behavioural and emotional symptoms as well as treatment for complex brain systems. More than 3000 references are quoted. Topics include transient and delayed sequelae of brain injury, psychiatric disorders in mental retardation, neurobehavioural syndromes (e.g. frontal or temporal lobe syndromes), pathobehavioural syndromes (e.g. Rett’s, Lowe’s, Angelman, Cornelia de Lange, and velocardiofacial syndromes), self-injurious behaviours, epilepsy, autism, tardive akathisia, and dyskinesia. Taxonomy of the clinical conditions based on clinical manifestations and aetiological and pathophysiological dimensions are presented.
Neuropsychiatric patients may be resistant to the usual pharmacological approaches and have a lower threshold to drug-induced neurotoxicity. There are 9 chapters devoted to various drug treatments, including vitamin therapy and ‘nutraceuticals’. A chapter is devoted to neuropsychiatric evaluation, which every psychiatrist should be as familiar with as mental state examination.
The author, who is Medical Director of the North Carolina Neuropsychiatry Clinic, is an experienced psychiatrist with more than 25 years of clinical expreience. The clinic, which opened in 1977 as a research project at the University of North Carolina, has an active research programme in psychopharmacology.
To conclude, this concise book is a good choice to con- sider, particularly if you are not a keen reader of thick texts.
Dr CH Hung
Senior Medical Officer
Psychiatric Services for Intellectual Disability
Castle Peak Hospital
Hong Kong
China