Abstract
This is the second edition of a comprehensive volume encompassing neurological terminology, classification, guidelines, diagnostic criteria, historical data and photographs of 77 famous neurologists. The first edition was 850 000 words, with the second edition updated to include over 15 000 alphabetical entries, 5000 references, and addresses of approximately 200 Web sites. All entries in the book are in alphabetical order and there are over 6000 references.
What is remarkable about this volume is that it is single authored and presented in a most readable and clear format, reflecting the unique knowledge and wit of the author. Upon using this volume over the past few months, it is a rare occasion that one cannot find something relevant and interesting each time it is consulted. It is also fun to read this volume and easy to start with one subject and move endlessly onto many other entries, each time being reminded of the depth and breadth of neurology, as well as discovering new information on each page.
With respect to headache, the author has included important material from the prior IHS Classification of Headache Disorders in 1988, with the relevant references and updates that were used to prepare the new 2004 classification. One suspects that any future edition will include even larger sections of the new classification, yet the current entries are sufficiently referenced and cross-referenced to allow an up-to-date understanding of the lexicon and nosology of headache disorders. It is however, not a textbook of neurology, management or therapeutics nor was it ever intended to be so, nevertheless, it covers a tremendous amount of material not mentioned or seen in traditional neurological texts.
Importantly, the headache information is encompassed in the broader field of neurology and psychiatry, which provides many advantages to headache physicians. For example, there are clear definitions and documentation of such subjects as serotonin syndrome, various pain definitions and disorders, as well as ample treatment of seizures, stroke, and neurobehavioural disorders and many disorders and diseases encountered in headache patients on a regular basis.
This volume should be of value to neurologists, psychiatrists and residents in those fields and beyond including researchers and basic scientists. It is both a dictionary and encyclopaedic in nature, and is truly is a ‘companion’ to the practice of clinical neurology. As a single volume there exists no other compact source of such detailed and rich information, and it remains a remarkable work of academic erudition.