Practical Approach to the Neurological Patient: A Clinician’s Guide, 1st Edition

By: William J. Mullally

ISBN: 9780443126420

Publication Date: October 27, 2024

Reviewer: Jared Regehr, MD (University of Kansas School of Medicine – Wichita)

Description

This book encompasses a wide variety of the highest-yield topics in clinical neurology. It is unique in the fact that it provides such a breadth of information from the basics of the neurological exam to the details of conditions commonly requiring neurology referral. From common conditions such as headache, dementia, and traumatic brain injury to more rare neurologic disorders, this book provides expert insight into diagnosis and management of a multitude of disorders.

Purpose

One of the main purposes of this book is to help make clinical neurology less intimidating for healthcare professionals that are not neurologists. This is certainly necessary due to the frequency of neurology related disorders encountered in settings that are not specific to neurology. The book does an outstanding job of distilling down a large volume of complex topics into readable and practical information.

Audience

Unlike many neurology textbooks, this book’s audience is not specifically neurologists. The information found in this book is meant to be useful for all healthcare professionals regardless of their specialty. This includes practicing primary care physicians, residents, medical students, and advanced practice providers. The wide variety of topics that this book covers ensures that it meets this goal. The authors, who are experts in various fields of neurology, write in such a way to make the information manageable and useful for non-neurology providers. The list of contributors is quite impressive with experts in both general neurology and a number of different neurology subspecialties from across the United States.

Features

This book covers more than 27 different topics discussed in detail. The organization is very logical. The structure of the book allows for reading from front to back or focusing on a particular chapter that might be pertinent on a given day. Different contributors wrote each chapter which enhances the breadth and depth of information. Due to the wide variety of topics covered, some chapters focus more on clinical information while others go into exquisite detail down to the sub-cellular level. The book’s writing style assumes baseline knowledge of familiarity with neurology topics, but the word choice is very practical and almost conversational which makes it very easy to read. High-yield summary tables and images throughout the book complement the text of each chapter well, which is one of the best features of this book. There is an appropriate balance of text, figures, tables, and images. The book details almost every topic commonly encountered in primary care offices.

Assessment

This book is extremely high quality and is an excellent resource for medical students, residents, and practicing physicians. It provides an outstanding knowledge base for learners yet also goes into details that are helpful for practitioners who have mastered the basics of neurology. It is very convenient to be able to open to a particular chapter for a quick reference while seeing patients. I will utilize this book in my own practice and will encourage residents to use it for guidance on all things neurology.

©Doody’s Review Service, 2025, Jared Regehr, MD (University of Kansas School of Medicine – Wichita), Doody’s Score: 95 – 4 Stars!

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