Handbook of Neurologic Rating Scales

Handbook of Neurologic Rating Scales edited by Robert Herndon, 266 pp., ill., New York, Demos Vermande, 1997, $125.00 In case reports and anecdotal therapeutic claims, the putative results of therapy are readily apparent. A recent example that came across my desk involved a therapy that reportedly caused a patient confined to a wheelchair for a year following a stroke to walk. Whatever the merits of the therapy, the therapeutic claim was clear. Scientific clinical trials are the cornerstone of scientific medical practice. In neurology, where the neurologic outcome usually cannot be correlated to a serologic assay (such as an ALT) or imaging study (such as an ejection fraction), the clinical courses of large numbers of patients must be …