Pick's Disease and Pick Complex

Edited by Andrew Kertesz and David G. Munoz

Pick's disease, a form of dementia often accompanied by aphasia, has been known for over a century. However, the highly complex symptoms associated with frontal and temporal lobe deficits have made Pick's disease difficult to diagnose, even by experienced clinicians. Over time, confusion over similar disorders and variations in the disease have led to some twenty Pick complex syndromes being relabeled as entirely new.

Pick's Disease and Pick Complex is the first book devoted to Pick's disease and its clinical and pathological manifestations. It sorts through the existing patchwork of terms and entities, and clearly presents the clinical concepts encompassed in this family of syndromes. This volume covers clinical depression, neuropathology, biology, and neurogenetic aspects of the disease. It compares Pick's disease to Alzheimer's, the multiple atrophies, and other neurodegenerative diseases. It also offers a critical review of the pathology and biology involved in other focal atrophies that share certain conditions with Pick's disease. Other topics covered include:

* Clinical and neuropsychological features of frontotemporal dementia

* The quantification of behavior in frontal lobe dementia

* Primary progressive aphasia

* Semantic dementia

* The movement disorder of corticobasal degeneration

* Cognitive changes in corticobasal degeneration

* Apraxia in the syndromes of Pick complex

* Frontotemporal dementia with motor neuron disease

* Dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

* Dementia lacking distinctive histology

* Dementia, amyotrophy, Parkinsonism complex and its relationship to Pick complex

* The biochemistry of cytoskeleton in Pick complex

* The inflammatory response in Pick's disease

* Clinical and pathological overlap in Pick complex.

Pick's Disease and Pick Complex is a comprehensive and reliable reference that clarifies Pick's diagnosis as compared with other forms of dementia, as well as interrelated variants of the same spectrum. It offers clinical information essential for neurologists, neuropsychologists, geriatricians, psychiatrists, and neuropathologists. It is also an invaluable resource for graduate students and researchers.