This American volume is ambitious in its aims, covering an extensive range of topics of relevance to neurology and psychiatry, from specific movement disorders associated with antipsychotic drugs, lithium and antidepressants to the relationship between psychiatric illness itself and motor abnormalities. Other areas reviewed include movement disorders associated with sleep and a range of neurological complaints, including those seen in childhood, such as motor dysfunction in autism. Each subject is covered in detail, with extensive use of tables, which provide useful summaries and are a help to the more casual reader. Many of the chapters adopt a methodological approach to the subject, exploring historical aspects, differential diagnosis, management and issues of basic science. The chapter on oculogyric crisis is a good example.

Such an exhaustive text, with numerous short chapters (for example, 20 chapters devoted to the subject of disorders of movement associated with drugs) must have presented the editors with a considerable challenge in terms of a clear, logical organisation for the book. While this has largely been achieved, there are still anomalies, such as chapters on primitive reflexes in psychiatry and neurology appearing in a separate section from the closely related subject of neurological soft signs in psychiatric disorders. As might be considered unavoidable in a book with 100 chapters and 120 authors, there is also a tendency for repetition of material. For example, the introductions to the chapters on akathisia and cognitive akathisia cover almost identical ground. There is also inevitably some overlap between chapters and occasionally some inconsistencies. The subject of catatonia is covered in three chapters, but each takes a slightly different perspective. For example, one chapter provides a detailed list of catatonic motor phenomena, while another classifies some of the same phenomena as abnormal movements in schizophrenia distinct from catatonia.

The advantage of the multi-author approach is in making accessible a range of views on often highly specific topics, and the consistently detailed and scholarly approach are major strengths of this work. None of the comments above should detract from what is an impressive, systematic and comprehensive review of the subject. As a reference book for clinicians and researchers interested in movement disorder, this volume is likely to prove invaluable and unrivalled.