Singer HS, Mink JW, Gilbert DL, Jankovic J. Movement Disorders in Childhood. SAUNDERS 2010, 288 pages, $99.00.
Abnormal movements are not uncommon in childhood. Sometimes, abnormal movements can be severe, resulting in functional disability often requiring medical treatment. Also, a number of disease processes occur exclusively in children and their clinical presentation, course, prognosis and management differ significantly from those in adults.
Movement Disorders in Childhood is a textbook dedicated exclusively to movement disorders in children and comes across as a refreshing change from most of the other current textbooks on this subject, which are primarily adult oriented. The book is written in a very reader friendly manner. Each chapter has been written by a board certified pediatric neurologist with a strong clinical and scientific background in the field.
The book is divided into 5 sections beginning with an overview of anatomy of the basal ganglia and the cerebellum and a brief classification of movement disorders. The next two sections are devoted to developmental and paroxysmal movement disorders. There is a comprehensive discussion of hypo and hyperkinetic movement disorders in the next section. The last section is devoted to selected secondary movement disorders which include a discussion on some of the current “hot” topics such as movements that occur in sleep, drug-induced movement disorders in children, and psychogenic movement disorders.
Majority of the chapters have a common format consisting of a brief overview followed by clinical presentation, anatomic localization of the disorder in the brain, pathophysiology and a discussion of individual diseases and disorders and treatment options. Illustrations are used appropriately throughout the book. The best feature of this book is the online access provided to the contents of the entire book including all of the book’s illustrations. There are also multiple narrated videos of actual patients and their disorders, which is a big plus point, and abstracts to Medline are available at expertconsult.com
Overall, Movement Disorders in Childhood is a comprehensive textbook which can serve as a guide to the diagnosis and management of children with movement disorders. This book can serve as a valuable resource for pediatricians, internists and pediatric neurologists.
