Neuropsychiatric Assessment, Vol. 23

What is neuropsychiatry?

This remarkable volume answers that question -- and more. Neuropsychiatry, which focuses on assessment and diagnostic issues at the interface of psychiatry and neurology, is enjoying a renaissance, largely because of the technological innovations detailed in these five chapters. Here, 11 recognized experts have assembled an overview of the essential techniques, current research, and future trends in neuropsychiatric assessment, focusing on clinical applications for psychiatry patients.

Beginning with the physical examination and medical and psychiatric history, this eminently practical work also discusses neuropsychological examinations, including interpretation pitfalls and future trends; electrophysiological testing, including recommendations in certain clinical situations (e.g., cognitive decline) and future uses; laboratory testing and the importance of developing consensus guidelines for its use in screening psychiatric patients; and neuroimaging, including a fascinating overview of the techniques involved and the current research findings in schizophrenia, major affective disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Intended to bring us closer to our goals of early detection of, more specific treatments for, and, ultimately, prevention of psychiatric illness, this in-depth yet concise volume on the research and practice of neuropsychiatry will find a wide audience among students, residents, and clinicians.

American Psychiatric Publishing

What is neuropsychiatry?

This remarkable volume answers that question—and more. Neuropsychiatry, which focuses on assessment and diagnostic issues at the interface of psychiatry and neurology, is enjoying a renaissance, largely because of the technological innovations detailed in these five chapters. Here, 11 recognized experts have assembled an overview of the essential techniques, current research, and future trends in neuropsychiatric assessment, focusing on clinical applications for psychiatry patients.

This eminently practical work begins with the cornerstone of any neuropsychiatric assessment, the physical examination and the medical and psychiatric history. Included here is a head-to-toe compendium of important signs and symptoms to elicit, along with the differential diagnoses of neuropsychiatric disorders to consider when faced with a particular constellation of signs and symptoms.

Subsequent chapters discuss

• The critical importance of the neuropsychological examination, traditionally administered by neuropsychologists and thus often overlooked by psychiatrists in routine workups of their patients. Topics addressed include the clinical approach to the interview process, fixed- and flexible-battery approaches to assessment, interpretation pitfalls, and future trends. The authors illustrate how this essential tool can reveal the major cognitive domains that may be involved in neuropsychiatric disorders and show how specific patterns of deficits in certain domains may help determine a neuropsychiatric diagnosis.
• The relevance of electrophysiological testing, an underused but invaluable resource, to neuropsychiatric disorders. The authors discuss standard, topographic, and quantitative electroencephalography; cerebral evoked potentials, and polysomnography, providing recommendations for the application of these tools in certain clinical situations (e.g., cognitive decline, rapid-cycling bipolar disorder) and projections for broader uses of electrophysiological testing in the future.
• The key importance of laboratory testing, especially in view of the complex array of neurological and medical illnesses that may underlie the symptoms of neuropsychiatric patients. The lack of consensus guidelines for the use of conventional laboratory testing, chest X rays, and electrocardiograms in screening patients with neuropsychiatric symptoms continues to constrain our ability to help these patients.
• The potential of today's increasingly sophisticated neuroimaging approaches—from structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic resonance spectroscopy to diffusion tensor imaging and positron emission tomography—to reveal the brain and its pathways with unprecedented clarity. The authors provide a fascinating overview of the techniques involved and the current research findings in schizophrenia, major affective disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Intended to bring us closer to our goals of early detection of, more specific treatments for, and, ultimately, prevention of psychiatric illness, this in-depth yet concise volume on the research and practice of neuropsychiatry will find a wide audience among students, residents, and clinicians.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer:Michael Joel Schrift, D.O., M.A.(University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine)
Description:This book is sort of a condensed version of the American Psychiatric Press Textbook of Neuropsychiatry. It is an excellent overview and introduction to the assessment of patients with neuropsychiatric illness. Written and edited by experts in neuropsychiatry, the book is a valuable contribution to the field.
Purpose:The purpose is to provide to the clinician an overview of neuropsychiatry and give practical instruction and tools for the assessment of patients.
Audience:The intended audience is psychiatrists and psychiatry residents. Clinicians who treat patients with mental illnesses would benefit from the information in this book.
Features:The first of the book's five chapters is an excellent approach to the bedside examination of patients. Chapter 2 covers neuropsychological assessment and reviews relevant methodological issues as well as the major cognitive domains and disorders. Chapter 3 details electrophysiological testing including EEG, evoked potentials, quantitative EEG, and polysomnography. The electrophysiologic approach to assessment of selected clinical populations is also reviewed. Laboratory testing for the screening of various neuromedical disorders is summarized in chapter 4. Chapter 5 discusses the major neuroimaging modalities and their relevance in the assessment of patients. Each chapter ends with current and useful citations and the index section was helpful.
Assessment:This is very useful overview of neuropsychiatry and assessment. I highly recommend the book for any newcomer to this exciting field.

Stuart C. Yudofsky, M.D., is D.C. and Irene Ellwood Professor and Chairman of the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston, Texas. He is Chief of Psychiatry Service at The Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas, and is also responsible for oversight of academic activities in psychiatry at The Menninger Clinic and Hospital, the Ben Taub General Hospital, the Houston Veterans Administration Medical Center, the St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, and the Texas Children's Hospital.

H. Florence Kim, M.D., is Assistant Professor and Medical Director of Neuropsychiatry Programs in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.