Customer Reviews

Adams & Victor's Manual of Neurology

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If the discussion of chronic fatigue syndrome is any indication of the quality of scientific reasoning and research that went into this book, then I strongly discourage anyone from purchasing it. The authors of that discussion have subscribed to an outdated - and even then minority - view of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) propagated by a group of psychiatrists and psychologists; in this completely unsubstantiated and unscientific view it is compared to the 19th century concept of "neurasthenia", a supposedly neurotic condition. None of the thousands of research papers that have found significant physical pathology in CFS are mentioned, nor the fact that the United States Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization recognize CFS as a physical disease (additionally, the American Psychiatric Association does not recognize CFS as a psychiatric disease of any kind); the WHO has for decades classified myalgic encephalomyelitis (aka CFS) under its section in neurological diseases. Abundant evidence has been found of dysfunction and damage in the central/ autonomic and peripheral nervous systems of CFS patients.

It is astonishing that a Neurology textbook would ignore or be unaware of all of this; such misinformation about a serious and widespread physical illness that many medical professionals will encounter makes this book a liability, and definitely not something worth recommending to colleagues.

As stated by Harvard Medical School professor Dr. Anthony Komaroff, "There are now over 4,000 published studies that show underlying biological abnormalities in patients with this illness. It's not an illness that people can simply imagine that they have and it's not a psychological illness...that debate..should now be over."

The authors here confuse "chronic fatigue," which is a symptom of many different diseases, including depression, with a serious physical illness called "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis" (CFS/ME). This is a very serious illness which ruins the lives of millions of men, women and children. In Oct 2009, an article was published in the journal SCIENCE which found a retrovirus, XMRV, in most of their sample of CFS/ME sufferers. Hopefully, the results of this study and other research studies will show the error of this type of confusion among doctors and researchers so that the focus will be on finding a cure for this dangerous illness rather than trivializing the sufferers.

Very inaccurate on ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis aka CFS/CFIDS). ME is a common (1M+ in US) and extremely debilitating NeuroEndocrine Immune Disease. They conflate ME (CFS) and idiopathic chronic fatigue and say ME is just a euphamism for depression. Shameful.

This book is a useful brief review and compendium of diagnostic neurological information. The paperback version is small enough to carry around or put in a briefcase. The book packs a considerable amount of information into about 400 pages. There are a couple of dozen chapters, organized according to the usual neurological disease categories, and there are a number of nicely done charts and tables that make good, quick references. Keep in mind this book is not intended to be exhaustive and is meant as a quick review or reference. It is intended for practicing physicians, so familiarity with the technical and medical terminology is assumed, and most technical terms are not explained. The book benefits from recent research, and contains up-to-date information on such rapidly changing areas as Alzheimer's. The book has references into Adams and Ropper's larger neurological handbook for those who want more information. Overall a good, concise reference work in neurology.