Volume 197 - Issue 2
One GP’s take on neurology
Author: Timothy J Kleinig
Med J Aust 2012; 197 (2): 120. || doi: 10.5694/mja12.10460
Published online: 16 July 2012
Published online: 16 July 2012
THE COMPLEXITY of neurology is both alluring and intimidating - rather like learning Ancient Greek or a Bach five-part fugue. Attempts at popularisation often fail because of either persistent obscurity or oversimplification. In this book, Professor Roy Beran, from the School of Medicine, Griffith University, Queensland, has produced a practical overview which aims to be approachable without dumbing down.To this task he is eminently suited, ...
Neurology for general practitioners.
Roy G Beran. Sydney: Elsevier Australia, 2011 (xii + 198 pp, $95.00). ISBN 97870729540803.
THE COMPLEXITY of neurology is both alluring and intimidating — rather like learning Ancient Greek or a Bach five-part fugue. Attempts at popularisation often fail because of either persistent obscurity or oversimplification. In this book, Professor Roy Beran, from the School of Medicine, Griffith University, Queensland, has produced a practical overview which aims to be approachable without dumbing down.
To this task he is eminently suited, as an erstwhile general practitioner who subsequently trained in neurology, while maintaining a large private practice and pursuing a broad range of clinical research interests.
His approach is self-avowedly idiosyncratic, and this is both a strength and a weakness. He distils an obviously extensive and hard-earned clinical wisdom, and provides GPs with a practically oriented approach to common neurological disorders. He places appropriate emphasis on the importance of clinical skills and the secondary role of diagnostic tests in neurology. Particular highlights are chapters on headache, epilepsy and dizziness, in which he outlines a scope of practice which is somewhat broader than that assumed by many GPs (an undertaking for which many neurologists will owe him gratitude).
And yet scattered through the book are various assertions which do not withstand close scrutiny (such as “Aspirin is more effective than clopidogrel alone in stroke prevention”), and perhaps the book was not edited as closely as it ought to have been. If the book succeeds to a second edition — as I certainly believe it deserves to — input from subspecialty colleagues may help turn this good text into a great one.