  This paper considers some the existence and uniqueness of strong solutions of
stochastic neutral functional differential equations. The conditions on the
neutral functional relax those commonly used to establish the existence and
uniqueness of solutions of NSFDEs for many important classes of functional, and
parallel the conditions used to ensure existence and uniqueness of solutions of
related deterministic neutral equations. Exponential estimates on the almost
sure and p--th mean rate of growth of solutions under the weaker existence
conditions are also given.
