Merritt's Neurology 12th Edition includes comprehensive revisions demanded by the progress of research in every chapter listed in the table of contents. Chapters have been added on endovascular neurology, a major advance in diagnosis and treatment, and in psychiatric conditions-schizophrenia, mood disorders, anxiety, and somatoform disorders. There are now separate chapters for autosomal recessive ataxias and autosomal dominant ataxias. Autism has also become worthy of a chapter itself, but there is no longer a chapter devoted to Reye Syndrome. Other new chapters cover parkinsonian syndromes, Lewy body dementia, frontotemporal dementia, vanishing white matter, vasculitis, normal pressure hydrocephalus, neuromyelitis optica, Kennedy disease, spinal muscular atrophy, complex regional pain syndrome, diseases of DNA translation, immune restoration inflammatory syndrome (IRIS), and Hashimoto encephalopathy.
In almost every chapter, the impact of molecular genetics has required much updating. The progress of medical science has produced monographs on virtually all subjects; a challenge to our authors has been the need to transmit the essential information without unduly enlarging the textbook.
The general organization of previous editions have retained, including arbitrary decisions about the placement of some subjects. Does the discussion of seizures or multiple sclerosis in pregnancy belong in chapters on pregnancy, epilepsy or multiple sclerosis? Is the Lambert-Eaton syndrome best described in a chapter on neuromuscular disorders or one on paraneoplastic syndromes? We have allowed some redundancy on these issues so the reader does not have to keep flipping pages to find the information.
The impact of molecular genetics has left other marks. Do we continue to organize the book by clinical syndromes and diseases or do we group by the nature of the mutation? “Channelopathies” or “neuromuscular disease” for Lambert-Eaton disease? “Channelopathy” for familial hemiplegic migraine or a form of headache? “Nondystrophic myotonia” or periodic paralysis for the hyperkalemic type? Triplet repeat or ataxia or spinobulbar muscular atrophy? We have opted for the clinical classification while recognizing that we are on the verge of understanding the pathogenesis of these increasingly scrutable diseases.
Another uncertainty involves eponyms: use apostrophe or not? There is no consensus in medical publishing because not everyone recognizes there is a problem. English-language neurology journals and the influential New England Journal of Medicine have not changed, but journals devoted to genetics or radiology have dropped the apostrophe and so have the AMA journals. The Council of Biology Editors has taken a strong stand against the use of the possessive form.
Section Headings
In almost every chapter, the impact of molecular genetics has required much updating. The progress of medical science has produced monographs on virtually all subjects; a challenge to our authors has been the need to transmit the essential information without unduly enlarging the textbook.
The general organization of previous editions have retained, including arbitrary decisions about the placement of some subjects. Does the discussion of seizures or multiple sclerosis in pregnancy belong in chapters on pregnancy, epilepsy or multiple sclerosis? Is the Lambert-Eaton syndrome best described in a chapter on neuromuscular disorders or one on paraneoplastic syndromes? We have allowed some redundancy on these issues so the reader does not have to keep flipping pages to find the information.
The impact of molecular genetics has left other marks. Do we continue to organize the book by clinical syndromes and diseases or do we group by the nature of the mutation? “Channelopathies” or “neuromuscular disease” for Lambert-Eaton disease? “Channelopathy” for familial hemiplegic migraine or a form of headache? “Nondystrophic myotonia” or periodic paralysis for the hyperkalemic type? Triplet repeat or ataxia or spinobulbar muscular atrophy? We have opted for the clinical classification while recognizing that we are on the verge of understanding the pathogenesis of these increasingly scrutable diseases.Another uncertainty involves eponyms: use apostrophe or not? There is no consensus in medical publishing because not everyone recognizes there is a problem. English-language neurology journals and the influential New England Journal of Medicine have not changed, but journals devoted to genetics or radiology have dropped the apostrophe and so have the AMA journals. The Council of Biology Editors has taken a strong stand against the use of the possessive form.
Section Headings
- Symptoms of neurological disorders
- Diagnostic tests
- Infections of the nervous system
- Vascular diseases
- Hydrocephalus and cerebral edema
- Tumors
- Trauma
- Spine and spinal cord disorders
- Birth injuries and developmental abnormalities
- Genetic diseases of the cns
- Mitochondrial disorders
- Neurocutaneous syndromes
- Dementia
- Movement disorders
- Hereditary ataxias
- Motor neuron diseases
- Peripheral neuropathies
- Disorders of the neuromuscular junction
- Myopathies
- Demyelinating diseases
- Paroxysmal disorders
- Autonomic diseases
- Systemic diseases and general medicine
- Psychiatry and neurology
- Environmental neurology
- Hardcover: 1216 pages
- Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; Twelfth edition (December 3, 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0781791863
- ISBN-13: 978-0781791861
- Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.6 x 1.9 inches