ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE AND RELATED DISORDERS ANNUAL.By Serge Gauthier and Jeffrey L. Cummings. 2000. London: Martin Dunitz. Price £39.95. Pp. 272. ISBN 1-85317-909-4.

Progress in the area of Alzheimer's disease and related disorders has achieved such a pace that it justifies a yearbook. While one may expect a discussion of the main publications of the preceding year, this volume actually consists of reviews of `topics of the year' in the realms of pathology, dementia, diagnosis, natural history and treatment. The subject matter includes genetics of Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia; dementia with Lewy bodies; parkinsonism with dementia; subcortical vascular dementia; minimal cognitive impairment; functional and neuropsychiatric manifestation of dementia and cholinesterase inhibitors; and hormonal and anti-inflammatory therapy of Alzheimer's disease. Peter St George Hyslop emphasizes that, as we begin to unravel the genetic components of dementia, complexities arise. It is by now clear that in the majority of Alzheimer cases, familial aggregation of Alzheimer's disease reflects a complex mode of transmission such as one or more common independent, but incompletely penetrant, single …