Handbook of Medical Neuropsychology

Medical advances have brought under scrutiny many behavioral syndromes that were undifferentiated in the past, as well as a greater appreciation of the cognitive and behavioral consequences of medical and neurological disorders. This book will focus on the diseases, syndromes, and disorders that involve neurocognitive dysfunction with the intention of providing a reference book for clinical evaluation, treatment, and design of research studies. Chapters will be consistently structured to 1) provide history and background on the development of knowledge about the neurocognitive function/dysfunction association with the topic, 2) review and identify the most specific assessment instruments for the disorder (or group of disorders), 3) practical information on the process of diagnosis and working within the medical setting, 4) most recent diagnostic tools used by medical practitioners, and 5) family and social issues that are relevant to the specific disease/disorder.§§The concept of this book extends beyond the prior Medical Neuropsychology book s focus on cognitive sequelae of organ and system pathology, to the current major categories of brain disorders presenting in neurology and medicine practices, so that individuals in major medical and university medical settings will find the more rare diagnoses included, yet those in smaller settings will find both the common diagnoses as well as needed reference material to evaluate the occasional rare disorder. Psychiatric diagnoses per se are excluded, and disorders that result in neurological injury but also cause severe morbidity are excluded, in order to focus on survival issues. Neurological and medical topics will be internationally relevant. §§Individuals in both adult and pediatric settings will find this relevant to their work. For example, the proposed book includes neurogenetic disorders, infectious diseases, ethics, and cutting edge rehabilitative technologies (see Table of Contents). The information will be packaged to address the important issues of background, treatment techniques, updated information on medical treatments, and some background on social and family issues.