Psychiatric Aspects of Neurologic Disease

Abstract

According to the preface, this book aims to teach psychiatrists the borderlands between psychiatry and neurology and especially how diseases or dysfunctions of the brain affect behavior. The volume is multiauthored and contains essays that range in scope from didactic and time-honored descriptions of "organic mental syndrome" and "frontal lobe functions," for example, to a presentation of contemporary clinical investigations on the symptoms of Huntington disease. Most of the chapters are semiological in content and give little attention to the biological basis of the clinical changes. In this vein, one cannot help being impressed with how little of the descriptive material is either quantitated or subject to controls for its specificity. Certain chapters stand out and could point the way for a more meaty future edition. Dr Benson makes several helpful clinical points in discussing the differences between functional and organic language disturbances. Felix Post thoughtfully analyzes the common and