The goal of tailoring the history and examination to the clinical scenario is to obtain the information that’s needed to help figure out what’s wrong with your patient.

In each of the following chapters of this section, the basic relevant pathophysiology underlying various common symptoms or syndromes is discussed as a background to the appropriate historical and examination procedures and findings helpful in diagnosis.

Although a thorough neurologic history should be attempted in all patients, there are pieces of information that are of particular interest in some clinical scenarios more than others. These discriminating historical features are reviewed throughout the chapters that follow.