Ebook: Neurologic-Psychiatric Syndromes in Focus Part I

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.