Prominent neurologists and movement disorders experts from around the world logically and systematically review the major movement disorder emergencies, instructing the reader on how optimally to recognize and manage these problems. The authors comprehensively cover a broad range of disorders, including acute dystonic reactions, neuroleptic malignant syndrome, startle syndromes, and tic emergencies, and stress the importance of certain obvious diagnoses such as Wilson's disease, dopa-responsive dystonia, and Whipple's disease, in which delayed diagnosis in less emergent situations can lead to slowly evolving and often irreversible neurologic damage with tragic consequences. Patient vignettes at the beginning of each chapter focus the reader's attention and highlight the urgency of the problem. Since astute clinical diagnosis of many movement disorders is still largely dependent on visual pattern recognition in the clinic, an accompanying CD-ROM illustrates virtually all of the movement disorders described in the text.

1 A brief introduction to movement disorders 1 2 Acute Parkinsonism 9 3 Parkinsonism-hyperpyrexia syndrome in Parkinson's disease 29 4 Neuroleptic malignant syndrome 41 5 Malignant catatonia 53 6 Abductor paresis in Shy-Drager disease 69 7 Movement disorder emergencies of the upper aerodigestive tract 79 8 Dystonic storm 101 9 Pseudodystonic emergencies 111 10 Tardive and neuroleptic-induced emergencies 117 11 Hemiballism-hemichorea 123 12 Sydenham's chorea, PANDAS, and other poststreptococcal neurological disorders 135 13 Acute spinal regidity 147 14 Tic emergencies 157 15 Malignant phonic tics 167 16 Serotonin syndrome 175 17 Risks and dangers from hyperekplexia and other startle disorders 187 18 Wilson's disease 195 19 Dopa-responsive dystonia 209 20 Whipple's disease 231