Practical Neurology Podcast

Michael J Fox, star of the Back to the Future trilogy, was born in 1961, moved to Hollywood aged 18 and while avidly lapping up the customary attention and refreshments, he developed Parkinson’s disease. He has now authored a memoir describing his experience of the disease alongside his career as an actor. PN editor Phil Smith gathered the PN book club to discuss the memoir with Fox's neurologist from the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Allan Ropper, and in this podcast you can hear his thoughts, as well as contributions from book club lead Katherine Harding, Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Wales, and Huw Morris, expert in early onset Parkinson's, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery. You can also hear each contributor's interview in full. Allan Ropper: http://goo.gl/tsl2p3 Katherine Harding: http://goo.gl/8B6ENw Huw Morris: http://goo.gl/3gRqNY Read Dr Harding's review of 'Lucky Man': http://pn.bmj.com/content/14/4/283.full

Martin Samuels, professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, tells Huw Morris, professor of Clinical Neuroscience at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery how neurologists make decisions, and the value of making mistakes. Professor Samuels gave the 20th Gordon Holmes lecture, supported by Practical Neurology, at the 2014 ABN Annual Meeting, where this podcast was recorded.

In preparation for this year's ABN annual conference in May, listen to last year's ABN Medallist speaker, David Chadwick. David Chadwick OBE is currently professor of neurology and consultant neurologist at the Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Liverpool. PN editor Phil Smith talks with him about his career, and the past, present and future of neurology. For more details about the ABN Annual Meeting 2014, see http://www.theabn.org

Neurological symptoms occur in approximately 20% of patients with Sjögren's syndrome, and may be the presenting manifestations of the disease. In this podcast, PN co-editor Phil Smith asks Aaron Berkowitz, Department of Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, about several neurological conditions that can occur in Sjögren's syndrome: sensory ganglionopathy, painful small fibre neuropathy, and transverse myelitis (independently or as part of neuromyelitis optica). Dr Berkowitz describes the symptoms, signs, differential diagnoses, recommended diagnostic evaluation, and treatment of each of these, highlighting the features that should alert neurologists to consider Sjögren's syndrome. Read the full review here: bit.ly/1fF2lev

Peter Gautier-Smith, now retired from neurological consulting at Queen Square, and crime fiction writer, describes how he made the leap from clinician to novelist. This interview is part of a Practical Neurology package on neurology and detective writing. For more information, and the other interviews in the set, see bit.ly/19YiaEM

Listen to Oliver Sacks, professor of neurology and NYU School of Medicine, discuss the role of narrative in neurology, and the parallels between the skills of detectives and clinicians in the specialty. This interview is part of a Practical Neurology package on neurology and detective writing. For more information, and the other interviews in the set, see bit.ly/19YiaEM.

Listen to Chris Goetz, director of the Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Program at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, talk about the parallel careers of neurologist and crime fiction writer of his friend and colleague Harold Klawans. This interview is part of a Practical Neurology package on neurology and detective writing. For more information, and the other interviews in the set, see bit.ly/19YiaEM

Listen to Andrew Lees, director of the Reta Lila Weston Institute for Neurological Studies at UCL and director of the Queen Square Brain Bank for Neurological Disorders, discuss his article on the intersection between neurology and crime writing. This interview is part of a Practical Neurology package on neurology and detective writing. For more information, and the other interviews in the set, see bit.ly/19YiaEM

When searching for clues to reach a diagnosis, neurologists often empathise with the detective who is trying to solve a case, write Peter Kempster and Andrew Lees in Practical Neurology bit.ly/1dqReQq. In this podcast Andrew Lees, director of the Queen Square Brain Bank, discusses with PN editor Phil Smith how neurologists draw upon detective skills (and how this is changing as the specialty changes), those who have turned these skills to crime fiction writing, and the use of narrative in clinical case histories. The expert witnesses called upon are Oliver Sacks, best selling author and professor of neurology at NYU School of Medicine, Peter Gautier Smith, now retired from consulting at Queen Square and who wrote 31 detective novels, and Chris Goetz, who worked at Rush University Medical Centre with Harold Klawans, crime fiction writer and authority on Parkinson’s disease. Listen to the full interviews here: Andrew Lees bit.ly/1cPaoxM Peter Gautier-Smith bit.ly/1d5HhKj Harold Klawans bit.ly/19cXRGC Oliver Sacks bit.ly/1hBsbgz

Andrew Chancellor, consultant neurologist in Tauranga, New Zealand, gives the background to his reported case of honey neurotoxicity in the June issue of Practical Neurology. Read Dr Chancellor's report here http://bit.ly/15EnIam