Patients with neuropsychiatric disorders are among the most difficult patients both psychiatrists and neurologists encounter and manage in clinical practice. In fact, most of the neurological disorders and primary psychiatric disorders can present with neuropsychiatric manifestations. Although neuropsychiatric disorders have been diagnosed and managed for a very long period of time, Neuropsychiatry has been more formally recognized as an independent discipline only for the past few decades. The literature devoted to neuropsychiatric disorders is enormous and continues to grow rapidly with textbooks covering many different disorders, as well as articles and books focusing primarily on specific neuropsychiatric conditions. Dr David Moore's second edition of the Textbook of Clinical Neuropsychiatry is an outstanding and comprehensive addition to this literature.

The book's 731 pages are divided into three parts with an index at the end. Part I – ‘Diagnostic Assessment’ describes the diagnostic interview from the setting and establishing rapport to eliciting the chief complaint and gathering the history. This is followed by detailing the mental status examination and conducting a neurological examination. The neuroimaging section of this part covers the differences between CT scan and MRI of the brain, outlining the clinical indications for both. The strongest section in this part is the electroencephalography (EEG) section, which describes in a rather simple but detailed way the normal EEG and different EEG abnormalities and their interpretation. Part I ends with a description of lumbar puncture technique, indications, contraindications, complications and standard measurements.

Part II – ‘Signs, Symptoms and Syndromes’ is divided into six chapters. Each of these chapters covers a number of neuropsychiatric signs, symptoms and syndromes in an organized and informative way, starting with clinical features, followed by a discussion of the aetiology and differential diagnosis and ending with a focused description of treatment for each syndrome. The first of these chapters is dedicated to cortical signs and symptoms and starts with an excellent overview of aphasia with its different types followed by other cortical manifestations like alexia, agraphia, acalculia, aprosodia, apraxia and agnosia – to name but a few. The second chapter covers abnormal movements. A number of comprehensive tables list different causes for various abnormal movements including tremors, myoclonus, chorea, athetosis, parkinsonism, catatonia, among others. The third chapter in this part covers 31 different signs and symptoms such as mutism, perseveration, primitive reflexes, pseudobulbar palsy, Kluver–Bucy syndrome, alien hand sign, depersonalization, obsessions and compulsions, confabulation, catastrophic reaction, echolalia and echopraxia, stuttering, hallucinations and delusions and Schneiderian first-rank symptoms. The following chapter describes syndromes of cognitive impairment with wonderfully written text and comprehensive tables of the causes of dementia, delirium, amnesia and mental retardation. The last two chapters in this part of the book cover syndromes of disturbances of mood and affect, including depression, apathy, mania, agitation and anxiety and other major syndromes like psychosis, personality change, seizures and epilepsy, stroke, traumatic brain injury and acute encephalitis. These chapters, which also include two newly added sections about somatoform disorders, malingering and factitious illness, constitute, in my opinion, the strongest part of this textbook.

Part III – ‘Specific Disorders’ is a dictionary of neuropsychiatric disorders that takes up almost half of the textbook with more than 200 neuropsychiatric disorders grouped under 15 different headings/chapters. Throughout, Dr Moore does a wonderful job describing each specific disorder, detailing its clinical features, course, aetiology, differential diagnosis and treatment in a clearly written, well organized and easy-to-read format. This part starts with a chapter about neurodegenerative and movement disorders followed by congenital, developmental and other childhood-onset disorders, vascular disorders, trauma, hypoxic disorders, nutritional, toxic and metabolic disorders, infectious and related disorders, prion diseases, endocrinological disorders, immune-related disorders, sleep disorders, brain tumours and hydrocephalus, idiopathic psychotic, mood and anxiety disorders, substance use disorders, ending up with medication and substance-induced disorders.

More than 5000 references have been cited in this impressive, single-author, encyclopaedic and clearly written publication. Despite being up to date, with mostly references from the recent past, Dr Moore did not neglect to reference the original works of eminent physicians like Alzheimer, Binswanger, Kraepelin, Jackson, Hughlings, Bleuler, and others. I expect this second edition of the Textbook of Clinical Neuropsychiatry to become one of the cornerstone references for neuropsychiatrists. It is also an invaluable source of information about neuropsychiatric disorders for trainees as well as practising psychiatrists and neurologists.