Memory, Amnesia and the Hippocampal System

damage which is so clearly presented in other textbooks, for example Jennett and Teasdale. Some chapters, at the other extreme, are essentially anecdotal. The author of a chapter on drug treatment states that: "only in the past year have attempts been made to set the actual practice of neuropharmacology into a modem theoretical framework, presented in a comprehensive format for clinicians who work with TBI patients", citing his own paper to support this statement. There follows a distinctly idiosyncratic, clinically based account in which psychostimulants are said to be "extremely useful", buspirone to be the treatment of choice in akathisia and amantandine in agitation. Neuropsychological concepts are used loosely and sometimes misleadingly, for example in repeated references to procedural learning in various chapters. There is a useful chapter on family adjustment following head injury, and an interesting attempt, in another chapter, to equate the concept of handicap with community integration. However, this book fails to instantiate the clear, goal-directed, multi-disciplinary approach which it should be advocating in the rehabilitation process. One gets little idea of what actually goes on in a team meeting or in therapy. Rehabilitation is a difficult subject to write about. CHRIS WARD