- Email: [email protected]
Hormones and brain development
140
The book seems a balanced minded. The price is acceptable.
source
for the clinician
and the research-
F.K. Beller, Miinster
Hormones and Brain Development Series: Developments in Endocrinology, G. Dormer and M. Kawami (eds.)
Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Oxford, 1978 (473 + xiii pp., 147 Figs., 63 Tables) Dfl. 44.00; US $64.00
Vol. 3 Press,
Amsterdam-New
York-
This book contains the proceedings of a symposium organized by the Society for Endocrinology and Metabolic Disorders of the German Democratic Republic in cooperation with the Endocrinological Societies of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and the International Society of Neuroendocrinology. The symposium was held in Berlin/GDR on September 6-8, 1978, and publication has been achieved with minimal delay by use of camera-ready procedure. The book is a compilation of 58 contributions arranged more or less artificially in 4 chapters: Hormones and sex-related brain differentiation; Hormones and brain differentiation unrelated to sex; Hormones and brain maturation; Hormones and brain function. The area covered is extremely large, and includes the influences of sex hormones, thyroid hormones, vasopressin, oxytocin, glucocorticoids, neurotransmitters, psychotropic drugs, maternal diabetes and electrical stimulation of the brain on gonadotropin secretion and fertility, behavior and liver metabolism in the human and in other species. Some contributions present mainly ‘theoretical considerations’ or ‘thoughts’; others are concerned with hard facts. The quality both of the content and the presentation of the different papers is extremely variable. Discussions are not included, and no attempt has been made by the chairmen or the editors to provide some kind of general discussion or conclusions after each series of papers. Without any doubt this has speeded up publication and, for those who attended the meeting, this book is undoubtedly a valuable working document. For the outsider these contributions look like the first pieces in a very complicated puzzle. At least one thing is evident from these first pieces: brain differentiation is influenced by a variety of hormones, humoral factors and drugs. When given in an inappropriate dose or at an inappropriate time these substances may cause irreversible damage to the developing brain and to the organism as a whole. As long as we do not understand the exact interrelationships between differentiation and its organizers, extreme caution is warranted whenever we treat a pregnant women or a developing child with non-physiologic substances or with aberrant amounts of physiologic substances. If this book helps us to keep this point in mind, it probably serves the most important purpose that can be attained at the present time. G. Verhoeven, Louvain
The book seems a balanced minded. The price is acceptable.
source
for the clinician
and the research-
F.K. Beller, Miinster
Hormones and Brain Development Series: Developments in Endocrinology, G. Dormer and M. Kawami (eds.)
Elsevier/North-Holland Biomedical Oxford, 1978 (473 + xiii pp., 147 Figs., 63 Tables) Dfl. 44.00; US $64.00
Vol. 3 Press,
Amsterdam-New
York-
This book contains the proceedings of a symposium organized by the Society for Endocrinology and Metabolic Disorders of the German Democratic Republic in cooperation with the Endocrinological Societies of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and the International Society of Neuroendocrinology. The symposium was held in Berlin/GDR on September 6-8, 1978, and publication has been achieved with minimal delay by use of camera-ready procedure. The book is a compilation of 58 contributions arranged more or less artificially in 4 chapters: Hormones and sex-related brain differentiation; Hormones and brain differentiation unrelated to sex; Hormones and brain maturation; Hormones and brain function. The area covered is extremely large, and includes the influences of sex hormones, thyroid hormones, vasopressin, oxytocin, glucocorticoids, neurotransmitters, psychotropic drugs, maternal diabetes and electrical stimulation of the brain on gonadotropin secretion and fertility, behavior and liver metabolism in the human and in other species. Some contributions present mainly ‘theoretical considerations’ or ‘thoughts’; others are concerned with hard facts. The quality both of the content and the presentation of the different papers is extremely variable. Discussions are not included, and no attempt has been made by the chairmen or the editors to provide some kind of general discussion or conclusions after each series of papers. Without any doubt this has speeded up publication and, for those who attended the meeting, this book is undoubtedly a valuable working document. For the outsider these contributions look like the first pieces in a very complicated puzzle. At least one thing is evident from these first pieces: brain differentiation is influenced by a variety of hormones, humoral factors and drugs. When given in an inappropriate dose or at an inappropriate time these substances may cause irreversible damage to the developing brain and to the organism as a whole. As long as we do not understand the exact interrelationships between differentiation and its organizers, extreme caution is warranted whenever we treat a pregnant women or a developing child with non-physiologic substances or with aberrant amounts of physiologic substances. If this book helps us to keep this point in mind, it probably serves the most important purpose that can be attained at the present time. G. Verhoeven, Louvain