Frontotemporal Dementia Syndromes. Edited by John R. Hodges, Cambridge University Press. 2007. £55 (hb). 346pp. ISBN: 9780521854771

Frontotemporal dementia is an important and probably increasingly recognised form of dementia with a unique presentation, clinical course and treatment challenges. The nature of the most common expression of frontotemporal dementia means that individuals are often first seen by psychiatrists before they are referred to neurologists. This is the first book for 10 years on the subject and things have changed, settling into a description of the three most common causes of frontotemporal dementia – the behavioural variant, primary progressive non-fluent aphasia and semantic dementia. These all stem from pathological appearances of Pick's disease, still a useful construct and one favoured by the editor.

This is an excellent book. It comprises a series of essays from the Cambridge group who have a wealth of experience in diagnosing and describing what must be at the core of the interface between neurology and psychiatry. It is based on the observation over a number of years and is helpfully divided into chapters of general introduction with essential clinical descriptions of the main types of disorders and the overlap with diagnostic criteria that are extremely helpful. The historical perspective is important and tracking how things have developed over time is most informative. There is a scamper through the neuropsychology of the condition with detailed tests described, a particularly helpful chapter on neuroimaging and excellent contributions on the pathology and molecular biology of the condition, hard to keep up to date with but essential to know. There is an experientially themed chapter on the psychological treatments of frontotemporal dementia which is excellent but little is said about drug treatment (this may be because little can be said).

By accumulating huge expertise in the area, this book helps to put frontotemporal dementia at the forefront of people's thoughts. It acts as a state-of-the-art treatise on the subject and one wonders whether we will have to wait another 10 years for the next version.