Sociology as Applied to Medicine

THIS book discusses the management outside hospital of common paediatric problems encountered in the community. The topics selected are well written, informative and expertly illustrated. It helps fill a gap left by the much larger number of hospital based paediatric books and provides relevant information for general practitioners, community based paediatricians and medical students. Although the authors do not claim that "Paediatrics" covers all childhood disorders, the omission of some topics (for example common infectious diseases, neurological development, handicap, and neonatology) will, however, restrict the appeal of this book. DJC Cardiff and is an attempt to bring order into the difficult diagnostic and therapeutic scene of low back pain. It consists of three parts, viz. the normal back, the abnormal back and the conservative treatment of the abnormal back. The first has a rather excessive section on comparative anatomy spanning the last 2,500 million years, with useful clear diagrams of the biomechanics of the upright posture. The anatomical drawings taken from Kapandji are a particularly good feature. In the second part of the book, there are relatively short accounts of disorders of the discs, facetal joints, muscles, ligaments, sacro-iliac joints including a short account of spinal stenosis. In the third part, there is a critical assessment of the literature concerning forms of therapy including manipulation and acupuncture neither of which has proved of any lasting value. Drug therapy, exercises, posturing and corsets are not neglected in assessment. This is a well produced and useful book and attempts a scientific approach towards a basis for good management. The after-chapter summaries setting out "the facts" are a particularly good feature. I can fully recommend it to all caring for patients with back pain. Considering the binding and illustrations it is keenly priced at £11.95. "SOCIOLOGY as Applied to Medicine" is the work of the Sociology Teachers Group from the London medical schools and seeks to respond to the General Medical Council's recommendations for medical education. These recommendations point out the necessity for broadening the student's basic understanding of the social context of health and illness and of the social determinants of medical practice and health service provision. One of the difficulties that medical students (and others) have with sociology is that its focus is not on the individual, person or patient. It is rather on the two-way relationship between the individual and various groups in society. "Sociology as Applied to Medicine" does …