Publications
APS Bulletin • Volume 9, Number 2, March/April 1999
Resource Reviews
John D. Loeser, MD, Department Editor
Chronic Pain Assessment, Diagnosis, and Management
Reviewed by John D. Loeser, MD
M.S. Margoles & R. Weiner (Eds.), CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 1999, 516 pages, $59.95 (hardcover), ISBN 1-57444-103-5
This book appears to have been written for chronic pain sufferers. Twelve authors, including one physician-author who describes his own journey through the world of chronic pain, have written chapters that often include patient vignettes. Other patients describe their paths and provide praise for the author of the chapter that described them. The scientific method is ignored. Everything is either anecdotal and based on personal experience or borrowed with permission from another source. What is included is idiosyncratic. There is no attempt to be comprehensive or to provide an overview that puts the chapters in perspective. Many of the chapters would profit from having a stern editor. References at the end of each chapter are aimed mainly at a professional readership, not patients. The book concludes with an advertisement for the American Academy of Pain Management.
I do not recommend this book for either patients or professionals. Everything in it has been said before, either with more eloquence or more science. The patient vignettes are the highlights.
John D. Loeser is professor of neurological surgery and anesthesiology at the University of Washington in Seattle.