Publications
APS Bulletin • Volume 10, Number 5, September/October 2000
Resource Reviews
Mayo Clinic on Chronic Pain
Reviewed by John D. Loeser, MD
D.W. Swanson (Ed.), Kensington Publishing Corporation, New York, 1999, 178 pages, $14.95 (softcover), ISBN 1-893005-02-X
This is a good book for patients. It is written in a simple, lucid style and nicely presents all of the standard themes in multidisciplinary pain management. It certainly minimizes the discussion of injections, procedures, and surgery, which is reasonable for the intended readers of this book. There are many helpful illustrations and tables as well as an appendix that lists other resources. Patients who are involved in multidisciplinary pain management or those contemplating this type of treatment can use this as a companion to their program. Like other self-help books, it probably is not effective by itself, or we would not have so many patients seeking this type of care. I have reviewed at least a dozen self-help books in this column over the past 7 years; this is one of the best.