Preface

Summary

Neurological diseases are a major burden for patients and populations. There are few animal models in which human diseases can be easily studied making it mandatory to investigate these problems in humans. Many of these diseases have still largely unknown causes, but considerable progress has been made in recent years in diagnosis, prognosis and treatment. The quantitative approach to neurological diseases has contributed substantially to the increase in insight into the clinical aspects of these diseases and this book is a reflection of that. In this quantitative approach a key role in this is played by clinical epidemiology. Epidemiology addresses all major topics in medicine – etiology, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment. It also addresses, in principle, all diseases. More recently, epidemiology has combined the tools developed in molecular biology and genetics with large-scale epidemiological approaches to identify fundamental causes for some of these nervous system disorders with the long-term goal of successful intervention.

This book has two main sections. In the first part a general account of principles of quantitative research in clinical neurology is presented. This section addresses the design and analysis of clinical studies in neurology, the genetic approach to neurological diseases, diagnostic research and clinical decision analysis, prognosis research, in particular outcomes research and survival analysis, and the role of the clinical trial in efficacy studies.

In the second part most major neurological diseases are discussed in a systematic fashion with an emphasis on etiology, diagnosis, prognosis and intervention. For all diseases, implications of these findings for clinical practice are discussed.