VERTIGO. ITS MULTISENSORY SYNDROMES.

Abstract

In the opening paragraph of his book, Professor Brandt states that \`Vertigo, dizziness and disequilibrium . . . occur in 5–10% of all patients seen by general practitioners and 10–20% of all patients seen by neurologists and otolaryngologists'. Whilst there is no doubt that these are frequent clinical problems, I suspect that they are not, shall we say, \`popular' symptoms with doctors. W. B. Matthews has mentioned the `slight decline in spirits' experienced by the neurologist when learning that a patient's problem is one of dizziness. This book goes a long way in trying to persuade our colleagues that there is life after a patient says that he or she is dizzy. How does the book do it? It incorporates in each chapter a good deal of physiological, perceptual and psychological aspects of balance function so that patient's symptoms and management are rationally understood. It includes exceptionally clear chapter summaries, tables and figures, which no other book in the field has ever produced, at least not so profusely and of such high quality. It deals extensively with conditions which, although familiar to the neurologist, have been badly neglected from the point of view of the differential diagnosis of vertigo, e.g. migraine, psychogenic vertigo and episodic ataxias. This is a book full of medical optimism, with a positive approach to diagnosis and treatment. Deservedly so in the light of the many significant advances in this field since the previous edition in 1991, such as functional imaging, the successful particle repositioning treatments for positional vertigo and the validation of rehabilitative therapies to name just a few. It is a single-author monograph which, needless to say, brings internal coherence and consistency to the work. For this same reason, there is also an extremely useful internal cross-referencing system in text and tables which allows …