What a splendid idea: neuropsychiatry is a clinical subject, so the notion of providing video-taped interviews with experts in the field, followed by clinical interviews with real patients accompanied by a workbook must be one of the best ways of learning the subject. In addition, the package contains, as a reference textbook, a copy of Lishman's Organic Psychiatry (Reference Lishman1997).

The videos and workbook are divided into seven modules, dealing with the main areas of neuropsychiatry. Each module is subdivided into various sections, with revision exercises and feedback after each exercise. Throughout the workbook further reading is recommended from Organic Psychiatry. (An outline of the modules is available at www.iop.kcl.ac.uk/main/publineu.htm .)

The videos are interesting and well-produced and the reference to Lishman's text means that anyone who has conscientiously studied the course will have learnt a great deal about neuropsychiatry and will have enjoyed the trip.

This teaching package will form an excellent preparation for the MRCPsych examination. More broadly, it presents examples of how to take a neuropsychiatric history, carry out a cognitive state examination and observe movement disorders or other neuropsychiatric symptoms — all of which will be invaluable to any clinician.

The package is intended for use not by individuals, but by local psychiatric training groups in which a clinical tutor might take responsibility for the pack and for providing supplementary help to trainees. The videos contain recordings of real patients and therefore a number of restrictions apply and the product is not available to individuals outside an academic setting.

As far as neuropsychiatry is concerned, some parts of this package are better than others. The neuroimaging section is particularly successful, and the opportunity of seeing Professor Lishman carrying out a cognitive status examination should not be missed. There are a few omissions. Somatoform disorders additional to pseudoseizures as well as sleep disorders could have been mentioned and it would have been interesting to have a little more time spent on movement disorders, since they lend themselves so well to video presentations. However, I enjoyed the package, as I am sure trainees and tutors will. It should be used as a model for many other areas of medical teaching.