Wilfred G. van Gorp – Författare

Substance use continues to be a major public health problem, and the ramifications of this are manifold. For instance, at present, on a yearly basis, the total economic cost of substance misuse is literally hundreds of billions of dollars. These costs are related to a number of factors, including, but not limited to, treatment and prevention, reduced job productivity and/or absenteeism, interdiction by the criminal justice, and incarceration.There are many more psychosocial consequences of substance misuse, and these have been well–documented over the past four to five decades; in contrast, with the exception of alcohol, the effects of substance misuse on the brain have received attention only in the past 10 to 15 years. An emerging body of literature has reported on the effects of various drugs on neuropsychological functioning, including benzodiazepines, cocaine, marijuana, MDMA, methamphetamine, nicotine, and opioids. Despite the fact that the neuropsychological consequences of many drugs of abuse are well–documented, to our knowledge, no one had previously published an edited volume that focused exclusively on this issue. Based on this fact, we decided to create a volume that would review the available literature regarding on this topic. Neuropsychology and Substance Misuse: State-of-the-Art and Future Directions explores cutting-edge issues, and will be of interest to clinical neuropsychologists who require the latest findings in this increasingly important area of neuropsychology.

The Neuropsychology Casebook was developed to fill the existing gap in the cur­ rent body of literature on clinical neuropsychology. Although texts are available that describe neuropsychological tests and others provide information on syn­ dromes, this volume provides descriptions of neuropsychological test perform­ ance for individuals with various syndromes. It was designed to illustrate the process of clinical interpretation of test findings and report writing for the individual case. Our aims are to provide both the student and practicing profes­ sional with a collection of actual neuropsychological case studies that typify many of the cardinal disorders or syndromes frequently seen by practicing clini­ cal neuropsychologists. We have not provided an exhaustive survey of case studies representing many of the disorders commonly seen in neuropsychology; rather, we have focused on a few select cases that illustrate some of the more common disorders. This book includes detailed case reports complete with referral questions, historical information, relevant neuroradiological findings, actual neuropsycho­ logical test data, and clinical interpretations that take into account all available information on the patient. The cases are discussed in the chapter commentaries with reference to how each compares and contrasts with the prototypic case for that disorder or syndrome. Such case studies help to highlight the various types of behavioral and cognitive sequelae associated with common clinical disorders. The case studies, which are examined through an hypothesis-testing approach, are also aimed at demonstrating how neuropsychological principles and methods are applied.