Bogousslavsky J. Neurologic-Psychiatric Syndromes in Focus Part I

Basel: Karger, 2018. — 135 p.The late 19th century and early 20th century witnessed neurology and psychiatry becoming two distinct fields in medicine. However, many overlaps between the two fields have been since then, leading to the reactivation of the clinical approach, thought to mainly bear a historical relevance. Neurologists have now become interested in mood and behavior, because they observed that emotional behavioral changes were often dramatically significant in patients with focal brain lesions or neurodegenerative disorders. On the contrary, psychiatrists have developed a renewed interest in the brain and its interaction with the psychological state. It is striking that while “neuropsychiatry” progressively became obsolete during the second half of the 20th century, a new approach to the functional changes associated with brain lesions and to the cerebral correlates of psychological dysfunction may justify a modern redefinition of the field.
Many neurologic-psychiatric syndromes have remained poorly known, because of a rarity in the literature which could often be explained by their position in the former no-man’s-land between classical neurology and psychiatry. The goal of the present book, which is divided into two parts (for Part II – From Psychiatry to Neurology, see Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience, vol. 42), is to shed light on the so-called “uncommon syndromes,” which may in fact be more frequent than what the literature suggests. Since several of these clinical syndromes were first reported over a century ago, they are often known by an eponym (Ganser, Capgras, de Cérambault, Cotard, etc.) or a mythological or fictional figure (Diogenes, Othello, Alice in Wonderland, etc.). This also explains why the historical description and development of these neuropsychiatric syndromes is of particular interest, and we have attempted to give details on this perspective across time. We have also tried to focus on the most representative clinical syndromes, excluding from our survey very common manifestations (anosognosia, confabulation) which have been the specific topic of recent reviews, or particular forms of delusions (delusional parasitosis) which do not bring specific information as compared to other delusional syndromes covered here.Minor Hemisphere Major Syndromes.
Phantom Sensations, Supernumerary Phantom Limbs and Apotemnophilia: Three Body Representation Disorders.
Misoplegia.
Pali and Echo Phenomena: Symptoms of Persistence and Perseveration.
Pathological Yawning, Laughing and Crying.
Catastrophe Reaction and Emotionalism.
Addictive (Non-Drug) and Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms after Focal Brain Lesions.
Hypersexuality in Neurological Disorders: From Disinhibition to Impulsivity.
The Klüver-Bucy Syndrome.
Diogenes Syndrome.
Brueghel Syndrome or Meige Syndrome? Two Sides of a Same Disease.
REM Sleep Behavior Disorder: A Unique Window into Dreaming, the Violent Brain and Early Mechanisms of Neurodegeneration.
Charles Bonnet Syndrome and Other Hallucinatory Phenomena.