Book reviews

EPILEPSY AND PSYCHIATRY by E. H. REYNOLDS and M. R. TRIMBLE. Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh, London, Melbourne and New York, 1981. ISBN 0 443 02311 5 pp. 379, figs. and tables, £ 22.00

In 1881 Gowers published his famous book: Epilepsy and other convulsive diseases. A century later Reynolds and Trimble paid tribute to him by organising a symposium on Epilepsy and Psychiatry in his hospital in London, and this book is the result. It gives a review of the state of art of all the psychiatric aspects of epilepsy which one always wanted to know, but was afraid to ask.

Why are people with epilepsy over-represented in prisons and in mental hospitals? Are they more inclined to aggression or sexual disorders, are they destined to become demented? Is

depression more prevalent among epileptic patients, and what about suicide? ls forced normalisation just another myth and is there still a place for hysteroepilepsy? Are there special learning problems or behaviour disorders in temporal lobe epilepsy? Do antiepileptic drugs cause cognitive impairment? Is there a tentative biochemical framework to

support the antithesis between epilepsy and psychiatry? Has brain surgery still anything to offer to the psychiatric problems of people with epilepsy? These questions and many more are answered in this book, which constitutes vast work and fills a gap in

psychiatric literature that as the editor points out had surprisingly not been filled before. Epilepsy links neurology and psychiatry, two closely related fields that threaten to drift apart. Therefore this excellent book is recommended to neurologists and psychiatrists alike.

A.E.H. Sonnen, Breda

CEREBROVASCULAR DISEASES: NEW TRENDS IN SURGICAL AND MEDICAL ASPECTS by H. J. M. BARNETT, P. PAOLETTI, E. S. FLAMM and G. BRAMBILLA. A satellite of the VIIth international congress of neurological surgery held in Gardone Riviera, Italy, July 2-4, 1981. Symposia of the Giovanni Lorenzine Foundation, Volume 12. pp. 408, figs. and tables, US $ 79.00/Dfl. 170.00, ISBN 0-444-80381-5, 1981. Elsevier Biomedical Press, Amsterdam

This book is comprised of a series of papers presented at a satellite of the Vllth international congress of neurological surgery held in Gardone Riviera, Italy, July, 1981. The book is divided into the following chapters: pathological anatomy and biochemistry, a plenary lecture by F. Plum dealing with factors affecting the degree of brain damage in experimental brain ischemia, diagnosis, physiopathology and therapeutic approaches, cerebral ischemia, a plenary lecture by H. J. M. Barnett concerning problems in the therapy of stroke prevention, brain aneurysm, a round-table on surgical treatment, and a closing plenary lecture by C. G. Drake covering some surgical ideas about aneurysm and AVM. In general the papers are of excellent quality, clear and informative, and especially the plenary lectures provide usefull reviews of the present state of knowledge in the fields. Topics of special interest are those dealing with the pathology and treatment of brain ischemia and brain aneurysm, and current concepts on experimental