Neurology for the Non-Neurologist

Selected By
Lori Mayer, DNP, MSN, RN, MSCN

As the title suggests, the book from which this chaptered was borrowed provides an overview of neurologic disorders for healthcare professionals who are not neurologists. As one would suspect from the title, this book avoids detailed, technical discussions of MS, concentrating instead on treatment of the disease and of accompanying symptoms.

Everyone learns differently, and so each visitor to these resources will have their own reading preferences. This chapter may be one that you read and return to again, particularly if you find yourself confused by the content in the other book chapters in this section.

Each aspect of MS is covered in enough detail to grasp the science underlying it without overloading the reader with difficult terms and concepts.

What not to miss:

1. “Epidemiology” section, which provides a good introduction to the distribution of MS today.
2. After reading the above section, look at Figure 11.1 “Map of World Depicting Areas of High Prevalence, Medium Prevalence, and Low Prevalence,” for an interesting view of the geographic distribution of patients with MS.
3. “Pathology of Multiple Sclerosis,” offers one of the more readable discussions of the underlying disease processes. As with all overviews of this topic, you should not fault yourself for having to re-read it a couple of times: MS is complex disease, and the disease processes underneath it are also complex.
4. “Genetics” section, which offers a reasonable perspective on a question that occurs to many MS patients.
5. Table 11.3 “Common Symptoms and Signs in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis” and the section “Symptomatic Therapy” cover symptoms facing many patients with MS as well as current treatment options. If you are experiencing these symptoms, this section may be useful to you in discussing them with your healthcare provider.

Always keep in mind that you will build your knowledge of MS more completely by reading material from several sources. If you believe that you learned a great deal from reading this chapter, you can build on your knowledge by reading the other chapters in this section.