Pediatric Neuropsychological Intervention Scott J. Hunter and Jacobus Donders, Eds. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, United Kingdom, 2007. 493 pp. US $115.00.

This edited book will be of interest to child psychiatrists. The title was somewhat misleading because the interventions reviewed were much broader than neuropsychological interventions. For example, Thomas Owley reviewed the use of pharmacological interventions for autism spectrum disorders in order to demonstrate concepts relevant to the pharmacological treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders. In fact, the book mainly reviewed a variety of intervention strategies, including behavioural and pharmacological treatments, for children and adolescents with disorders such as traumatic brain injury, seizures, cancer, motor control and movement disorders, autism spectrum disorders, learning disabilities, genetic syndromes, right hemispheric disorders, dysexecutive disorders, and attentional disorders typically seen by pediatric neuropsychologists and child psychiatrists. It was a scholarly work, and not a description of manualized interventions. Historically, neuropsychology has focussed on assessment issues in order to elucidate brain-behaviour relationships. This emphasis was still apparent in this book, despite the stated focus on intervention, which was a reflection of the current state of affairs. For example, diagnostic and assessment issues as well as descriptions of neuropsychological sequelae were included in the chapters on the various disorders. The first section of the book reviewed fundamental issues related to clinical practice including the importance of using a developmental approach, the role of neuropsychological assessment in diagnosis and treatment planning, and multicultural issues relevant to intervention and rehabilitation. The chapter on relationship of neuropsychological practice with educational interventions will be of less interest to Canadian clinicians because it was focussed on American legislation affecting provision of special education services. The second section of the book described specific neurodevelopmental disorders including their clinical manifestations, neuropsychological findings, and results of intervention studies. With respect to intervention studies, most work has been on the treatment of children with learning disabilities and attentional disorders. This was reflected in the comprehensiveness of these chapters. The short section on psychosocial interventions for cancer patients and their families was especially interesting. The third section of the book was an assortment of chapters on rehabilitative interventions, quantitative electroencephalography and neurofeedback, which could be considered as an acquired taste, pharmacological interventions for autism, and neuroimaging. Erin Bigler presented several interesting cases in which results of several types of neuroimaging techniques were related to history and neuropsychological assessment findings. The colour images were useful, but unfortunately the images were rather small, with the figure legends sometimes taking up more space than the images. This timely review of intervention efforts should be mandatory reading for paediatric neuropsychologists. Since there is considerable overlap in the types of patients seen by child psychiatrists and paediatric neuropsychologists, the information will be of interest to child psychiatrists who are looking for up-to-date information on specific neurodevelopmental disorders. I look forward to future editions that hopefully will contain considerably more information on intervention strategies than is currently available.

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