Clinical Neuropsychology: A Practical Guide to Assessment and Management for Clinicians

Good!!

As a clinical psychologist in training, I desperately needed a book which would give me a firm grounding in Neuropsychology i.e. what are the biological bits of the brain, what does each bit do and what kinds of neuropsychological / degenerative diseases might one come across in clinical practice. I also wanted a book that would provide me with some practical 'advice' (for want of a better word) in how to assess and manage those who may have had brain injuries and/or neurological problems. Well. This book covered all of that and more!!! It is extremely well written, but slightly overwhelming at times as there is a fair bit of technical language e.g. one sentence says "the arcuate fasciculus is a tract connecting the two regions: a simplistic serial model of processing...". The chapters I found most useful were 'the psychological and psychiatric aspects of brain disorder' along with 'the effects of certain drugs on psychological functioning'. I found this helpful as it enabled me to reflect on whether the neurological issue was truly neurological or whether other variables (e.g. depression, anxiety, side effects of medication) were having an impact. The reason I gave it a 4 and not a 5 is because the language makes it slightly overwhelming sometimes and because it does not have a chapter about which cognitive test may be most appropriate for a particular problem. Don't get me wrong, it does cover a whole range of tests which are weaved throughout the chapters (i.e. there is a brief mention of how X test would be useful for assessing a motor disorder) and it does have a chapter on things to be aware of when scoring such tests, but as I said earlier, I personally would have found it more helpful if there was a specific chapter devoted this. Having said that, the authors cannot be expected to cover everything or please everyone so maybe that was their compromise.