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Sleep disorders medicine
Electroencephalography and clinical Neurophysiology, 91 (1994) 315-317 0 1994 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. 0013-4694/94/$07.00
315
Book Reviews edited by E. Niedermeyer and P.M. Rossini Sleep disorders medicine. - S. Chokroverty (Ed.) (ButterworthHeinemann, Boston, MA, 1993,576 p., Price: US $125.00) Sleep Disorders Medicine consists of 28 chapters that are grouped into 3 parts: basic sciences, technical considerations, and clinical aspects. The interested reader may acquire a view on sleep and some of its disorders or to some extent sleep seen from different, yet integrated, angles. The sleep specialist may ask: yet another book on sleep? This is possibly one of the reasons why Dr. Dement in his brief introductory chapter wrote: “Any field worth its salt has several textbooks, and sleep medicine should not be an exception.” During the recent years there has indeed been an exponential growth in the interest in sleep and publications about sleep. Timely so, for sleep has been dormant for a long time, in spite of the fact that we spent approximately one-third of our lives asleep or at least attempt to sleep. Why has the subject not well been studied for such a long time? Dr. Dement knows the answer: those who study the human subject have to stay awake all night! There is a lot to argue about this, but one may prefer to do so during a party. The book ends by reproducing the Glossary of Terms by the American Sleep Disorders Association, published in 1990. Dr. Chokroverty is grateful to the association for allowing him to do this. I am not so sure that this is really a favor. Such a list is seldomly complete or satisfactory. Furthermore, the list of abbreviations contains terms that are no longer standard to the recent Classification of Sleep Disorders, as outlined in the chapter by Dr. Thorny. Outdated terms are only confusing in the light of the new sleep disorders classification. Now that we have the beginning and the end of the book, are the other 27 chapters providing us somewhat more than yet another book where the authors are committing plagiarism with themselves. I must express some admiration for those authors who are able to write about the same subject over and over again with an enthusiasm as if this was material never presented before. However, this fulfills one of the requirements of learning: repeating is the key. This is part of Dr. Dement’s salt. One never gets enough of it. That, however, should not apply to some of the more formal aspects of this publication. Although it is not customary to read a textbook chapter after chapter, like a reviewer is supposed to do (and some do), it is nevertheless worthwhile considering that it might be unnecessary for each contributor to write an introduction on the matter of sleep in general. In chapter 2, Dr. Chokroverty described sleep stages and sleep architecture. Unfortunately, we have to read that several times over within the same publication. Some of the introductions are really overdone in that it takes several pages before one arrives at the final subject. The reader can judge for himself whether to read or not, but it might have been a waist of paper and time. Fortunately, there are several exceptions. The chapter on parasomnias by Dr. Broughton is such an example. It starts with: “The parasomnias may be defined as events.. ..” In addition this is one of the chapters where the systematic order from defining the disorder, to the diagnosis and treatment is providing the reader the pleasure of a scholarly written insight into a fascinating problem. Admitted, some of the subjects may not lend themselves to a lucid insight, because there might be none. The chapter on sleep in psychiatric disorders leads to the parsimonious conclusion that sleep is affected in strange ways in psychiatric disorders.
Nevertheless, there is plenty of information in this book. Dr. Chrokroverty has to be congratulated for his effort, and to some extent I wonder whether he was ever tempted to write the complete book himself. However, we would not have had the pleasure of reading the chapters from the other experts in the field of sleep medicine who, maybe by staying awake, have been further contributing to our knowledge. The field got some additional salt. Albert Wauquier Department of Neurology, Medical College of Ohio, Toledo, OH (USA)
Awareness of deficit after brain injury. Clinical and theoretical issues. - G.P. Prigatano and D.L. Scharhter (Ms.1 (Oxford University Press, New York, 1991, 271 p., Price: US $49.95) Impairments of awareness of deficit after acquired brain injury, although a frequent complication in many neuropsychological syndromes, are not investigated as frequently as the prevalence of the” problem would suggest. One of the many obstacles to systemic studies of impaired awareness after brain injury has to do with the difficulties involved in quantification of this type of deficit. Another problem, as pointed out by the editors of this book, has to do with the development of a useful taxonomy. This book, which grew out a 3 day conference devoted to issues of altered awareness or insight after-acquired brain damage, goes a long way towards remedying some of these problems. The contributors to this excellent volume are all investigators who have made important contributions to the study of anosognosia. The book consists of 14 chapters. The editors each contributed one chapter as well as an excellent final chapter discussing different forms of unawareness of illness. The remainder of the chapters discuss the phenomenon of unawareness in the context of several neurological syndromes. The chapter by Rubens and Garett provide an insightful discussion of anosognosia of linguistic deficits. The most striking example of unawareness of language impairment is seen with jargon aphasia, believed to be the product of two co-existing deficits: anosognosia and aphasia. The authors review the data in support of a possible right hemisphere role in jargon aphasia, but conclude that there is insufficient data to specify what this role could be. Although most clinicians will not typically associate anosognosia with traumatic brain injury, the chapter devoted to unawareness of deficit after head injury is important because it highlights the implications of unawareness of deficits for rehabilitation. Unawareness of deficit represents a major problem in most types of dementing illness, but relatively little space is devoted to this issue in this book. The authors of the chapter on unawareness of deficits in dementia and schizophrenia state that there is “little experimental evidence for unawareness of deficits in the dementing illnesses,” but clearly the clinical experience suggests that with the possible exceptions of some subcortical types of dementias and the relatively rare focal cortical dementias, lack of insight into the illness is a ubiquitous phenomenon.
315
Book Reviews edited by E. Niedermeyer and P.M. Rossini Sleep disorders medicine. - S. Chokroverty (Ed.) (ButterworthHeinemann, Boston, MA, 1993,576 p., Price: US $125.00) Sleep Disorders Medicine consists of 28 chapters that are grouped into 3 parts: basic sciences, technical considerations, and clinical aspects. The interested reader may acquire a view on sleep and some of its disorders or to some extent sleep seen from different, yet integrated, angles. The sleep specialist may ask: yet another book on sleep? This is possibly one of the reasons why Dr. Dement in his brief introductory chapter wrote: “Any field worth its salt has several textbooks, and sleep medicine should not be an exception.” During the recent years there has indeed been an exponential growth in the interest in sleep and publications about sleep. Timely so, for sleep has been dormant for a long time, in spite of the fact that we spent approximately one-third of our lives asleep or at least attempt to sleep. Why has the subject not well been studied for such a long time? Dr. Dement knows the answer: those who study the human subject have to stay awake all night! There is a lot to argue about this, but one may prefer to do so during a party. The book ends by reproducing the Glossary of Terms by the American Sleep Disorders Association, published in 1990. Dr. Chokroverty is grateful to the association for allowing him to do this. I am not so sure that this is really a favor. Such a list is seldomly complete or satisfactory. Furthermore, the list of abbreviations contains terms that are no longer standard to the recent Classification of Sleep Disorders, as outlined in the chapter by Dr. Thorny. Outdated terms are only confusing in the light of the new sleep disorders classification. Now that we have the beginning and the end of the book, are the other 27 chapters providing us somewhat more than yet another book where the authors are committing plagiarism with themselves. I must express some admiration for those authors who are able to write about the same subject over and over again with an enthusiasm as if this was material never presented before. However, this fulfills one of the requirements of learning: repeating is the key. This is part of Dr. Dement’s salt. One never gets enough of it. That, however, should not apply to some of the more formal aspects of this publication. Although it is not customary to read a textbook chapter after chapter, like a reviewer is supposed to do (and some do), it is nevertheless worthwhile considering that it might be unnecessary for each contributor to write an introduction on the matter of sleep in general. In chapter 2, Dr. Chokroverty described sleep stages and sleep architecture. Unfortunately, we have to read that several times over within the same publication. Some of the introductions are really overdone in that it takes several pages before one arrives at the final subject. The reader can judge for himself whether to read or not, but it might have been a waist of paper and time. Fortunately, there are several exceptions. The chapter on parasomnias by Dr. Broughton is such an example. It starts with: “The parasomnias may be defined as events.. ..” In addition this is one of the chapters where the systematic order from defining the disorder, to the diagnosis and treatment is providing the reader the pleasure of a scholarly written insight into a fascinating problem. Admitted, some of the subjects may not lend themselves to a lucid insight, because there might be none. The chapter on sleep in psychiatric disorders leads to the parsimonious conclusion that sleep is affected in strange ways in psychiatric disorders.
Nevertheless, there is plenty of information in this book. Dr. Chrokroverty has to be congratulated for his effort, and to some extent I wonder whether he was ever tempted to write the complete book himself. However, we would not have had the pleasure of reading the chapters from the other experts in the field of sleep medicine who, maybe by staying awake, have been further contributing to our knowledge. The field got some additional salt. Albert Wauquier Department of Neurology, Medical College of Ohio, Toledo, OH (USA)
Awareness of deficit after brain injury. Clinical and theoretical issues. - G.P. Prigatano and D.L. Scharhter (Ms.1 (Oxford University Press, New York, 1991, 271 p., Price: US $49.95) Impairments of awareness of deficit after acquired brain injury, although a frequent complication in many neuropsychological syndromes, are not investigated as frequently as the prevalence of the” problem would suggest. One of the many obstacles to systemic studies of impaired awareness after brain injury has to do with the difficulties involved in quantification of this type of deficit. Another problem, as pointed out by the editors of this book, has to do with the development of a useful taxonomy. This book, which grew out a 3 day conference devoted to issues of altered awareness or insight after-acquired brain damage, goes a long way towards remedying some of these problems. The contributors to this excellent volume are all investigators who have made important contributions to the study of anosognosia. The book consists of 14 chapters. The editors each contributed one chapter as well as an excellent final chapter discussing different forms of unawareness of illness. The remainder of the chapters discuss the phenomenon of unawareness in the context of several neurological syndromes. The chapter by Rubens and Garett provide an insightful discussion of anosognosia of linguistic deficits. The most striking example of unawareness of language impairment is seen with jargon aphasia, believed to be the product of two co-existing deficits: anosognosia and aphasia. The authors review the data in support of a possible right hemisphere role in jargon aphasia, but conclude that there is insufficient data to specify what this role could be. Although most clinicians will not typically associate anosognosia with traumatic brain injury, the chapter devoted to unawareness of deficit after head injury is important because it highlights the implications of unawareness of deficits for rehabilitation. Unawareness of deficit represents a major problem in most types of dementing illness, but relatively little space is devoted to this issue in this book. The authors of the chapter on unawareness of deficits in dementia and schizophrenia state that there is “little experimental evidence for unawareness of deficits in the dementing illnesses,” but clearly the clinical experience suggests that with the possible exceptions of some subcortical types of dementias and the relatively rare focal cortical dementias, lack of insight into the illness is a ubiquitous phenomenon.