Contemporary Neurobehavioral Syndromes

814 Book Reviews focused, and non-technical treatment of statistical topics may be better served by books by Good and Hardin (2012) and van Belle (2008) along with the Statistics Notes in the British Medical Journal: http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~mb55/pubs/pbstnote. htm. References Berry, W. D. (1993). Understanding regression assumptions. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Good, P., & Hardin, J. (2012). Common errors in statistics: And how to avoid them (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Interscience. Greenhalgh, T. (2010). How to read a paper: The basics of evidence-based medicine (4th ed.). Malden, MA: BMJ Books. Hardin, J. W., & Hilbe, J. M. (2012). Generalized linear models and extensions (3rd ed.). College Station, TX: StataCorp LP. Harrell, F. E., Jr. (2001). Regression modeling strategies: With applications to linear models, logistic regression, and survival analysis. New York: Springer-Verlag. Huberty, C. J., & Morris, J. D. (1989). Multivariate analysis versus mulitple univariate analyses. Psychological Bulletin, 105 (2), 302–308. Smith, G. E., Ivnik, R. J., & Lucas, J. (2008). Assessment techniques: Tests, test batteries, norms, and methodological approaches. In J. E. Morgan, & J. H. Ricker (Eds.), Textbook of clinical neuropsychology. New York: Taylor & Francis. Steyerberg, E. (2009). Clinical prediction models: A practical approach to development, validation, and updating. New York: Springer. Strauss, E., Sherman, E., & Spreen, O. (2006). A compendium of neuropsychological tests (3rd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. van Belle, G. (2008). Statistical rules of thumb (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Scott R Millis Wayne State University, School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, USA doi:10.1093/arclin/acs077 Advance Access publication on 31 August 2012 # The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: . Contemporary Neurobehavioral Syndromes, G. Goldstein, T.M. Incagnoli, and A.E. Puente (Eds.). Psychology Press, New York (2011). 311 pp. $81. The central premise of “Contemporary Neurobehavioral Syndromes” is that the clinical neuropsychologist of the early 21st century is faced with new syndromes that depart from the “traditional” disorders (stroke, brain trauma, dementing disorders, learning disabilities, etc.) their training prepared them for. The editors attribute the growth of knowledge to advances in neuroimaging, neuropsychological assessment, and the biological revolution in psychiatry. Three specific inclusion criteria were offered for a contemporary syndrome: (a) syndromes that did not exist before the 20th century (e.g., exposure to depleted uranium), (b) syndromes for which a paradigm shift occurred (e.g., autism re-conceptualized from a disorder of faulty childrearing practices to a developmental neurobiological disorder), and (c) syndromes that were incompletely understood (e.g., neuro-developmental disorders stemming from prenatal exposure to methylmercury). Thus, a primary goal of the text is to provide an update on various syndromes that have been re-conceptualized or did not exist decades ago. Contemporary Neurobehavioral Syndromes also aims to provide chapters of relevance to neuropsychologists, and although it is generally clearly written, it is uneven in the degree to which it succeeds. Comprised of an introductory chapter and 10 content chapters written by scientist-practitioners with appropriate expertise in the respective disorder, each captures a different syndrome or group of related syndromes. These include pre-term birth, autism, adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dementia with Lewy bodies, deployment syndromes, neurobehavioral aspects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), comorbid disorders, behavioral toxicology, respiratory disorders, and fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and related “neurasthenic disorders.” Chapters that were particularly successful in reviewing the clinical science and research methods and integrating that review with ramifications for neuropsychological assessment, diagnosis, and intervention dealt with long-term outcome following pre-term birth, autism, adult ADHD, PTSD, and respiratory disorders. In Chapter 2, on pre-term birth, the neuropsychological phenomena are presented in detail and contextualized nicely within a general neuro-medical framework. The reader of chapter three (autism) will come away with a good appreciation of the relationship of white matter pruning, reduced functional connectivity, and complex cognition deficits in autism, among other topics. Functional imaging, behavioral genetics, and neuropsychological deficits are effectively reviewed in the chapter on adult ADHD. In a book with a neuropsychological contextualization, this chapter could have touched on the current debate Book Reviews 815 as to the usefulness of clinical neuropsychological assessment in adult ADHD diagnosis and treatment. The reader will find “pre-disposing vulnerability” and excitotoxic perspectives on PTSD capably reviewed in a very well organized and written chapter. While the quality and potential etiology of the deficits in PTSD patients comes through quite clearly in this chapter, provision of effect sizes between PTSD and control groups could help the reader appreciate the extent and implication of neuropsychological involvement in this complex anxiety disorder. The chapter on respiratory disorders and neuropsychological dysfunction (Chapter 10) provides exceptional detail on test selection as well as neuropsychological signs and symptoms and a perspective on treatment. Neuropsychologists with particular interest in these topics would find this thin book a welcome and valuable addition to their libraries. The remaining chapters are uneven in quality for a number of reasons, and some are notable for a lack of focus. For some of these relatively new disorders, basic science may be available but the translation to applied science has yet to occur or is limited in scope. In these chapters, application and relevance to selection of instruments, approach to the interview and/or evaluation, diagnostic decision-making, and especially, to follow-up psycho-education and intervention efforts, are limited. As such, these chapters may be of more interest to researchers in those areas as opposed to clinicians. In two or three of the chapters (behavioral toxicology, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, and deployment syndromes), the primary neurogenic risk factor is stressmediated, and the clinical presentation is essentially of a somatoform disorder. Consequently, hypothalamic-pituitary axis mediation is reviewed in several chapters. As a matter of organization, consolidation of these chapters into a single chapter dealing with stress disorders and somatization may have been preferable. Chapter 5, Dementia with Lewy Bodies, offers content relevant to pharmacotherapy and medical management but less regarding cognitive function. The chapter addressing Persi (...truncated)