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APS Bulletin • Volume 8, Number 1, 1998

Resource Reviews

John D. Loeser, MD, Department Editor

Pills Aren't Enough: Stories for Emotional Healing in Chronic Illness

Reviewed by John D. Loeser, MD

C. Wasner, MD, Anadem Publishing Inc., Columbus, OH, 1997, 177 pages, $18.50 (softcover), ISBN 1-890018-14-7

This is a small book for patients, created by an expert on arthritis who writes with feeling and style. Physicians could also profit from reading it. The first three-fourths of the book consists of fictionalized patient vignettes. They beautifully describe the emptiness of modern high-technology medicine and the shortcomings of those who think that patient care consists of the application of a technological solution to a set of symptoms. The last portion of the book describes “Emotional Aerobics” designed to help patients with chronic illness understand and adapt to their illnesses. Contained in this section is an excellent set of exercises designed to ward off quackery and useless nostrums. The author has great insight into chronic illness in general and chronic pain in particular. Vignette 8, “The Dog Ate My Homework,” unveils a prototypic chronic pain patient, as so often seen in our clinics. The writing is good enough to make me search for the author's fictional works. This is a good book for one's patient library.

John Loeser is a professor of neurological surgery and anesthesiology at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Reviewer content represents the opinion of the reviewer, not APS.

Please direct your suggestions for future Resource Reviews to John D. Loeser, MD, Department Editor, at jdloeser@u.washington.edu

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