Field of medicine: Neurology.

Format: Softcover book.

Audience: Neurologists and internists.

Purpose: To facilitate the diagnosis and management of mental status disorders.

Content: This pocket-sized book is divided into three sections that cover evaluation of mental status, disorders of mental status, and management issues. The section on disorders of mental status addresses four major clinical presentations: coma, encephalopathy, syncope, and dementia. In this context, the author reviews the effects of hypoxia, stroke, metabolic disorders, seizures, hydrocephalus, and degenerative disease.

Highlights: The author provides useful algorithms for the evaluation of common conditions and supplies helpful summaries of some of the more common causes of disordered mental status.

Limitations: A lack of depth and detail limits the usefulness of this book for neurologists. No neuroimages are included, and underlying neuroanatomic or neurophysiologic mechanisms receive little attention. The discussion of the mental status examination lacks the sophistication that a behavioral neurologist might expect. The sections on stroke, epilepsy, and metabolic disorders are useful but repeat much of what can be found in standard neurology texts.

Related reading: Many excellent "entry level" books cover the issues presented in Disorders of Mental Status. One very practical and easy-to-read example is Adult Neurology, edited by Corey-Bloom (Mosby-Year Book, 1998), a concise book that may do a better job of providing the busy internist with practical information about common neurologic problems.

Reviewer: Daniel B. Hier, MD, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois.