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The chronically ill child and his family
THE
BOOK
SHELF
L. EmmettHolt, Jr.,Editor
Book reviews
The chronically ill child and his family Edited by M a t t h e w Debuskey, Springfield, Illinois, 1970, Charles C Thomas, Publisher, 203 pages. $11.50. At a time when more and more of our work is concerned with children who have chronic illness it is good that this book has been produced. It aims to provide a comprehensive approach to children with chronic illness. There are over 25 contributors, mainly from The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, and the multiplicity of authors creates obvious unevenness. My impression was that while some were strongly motivated to contribute, others had to have their arms twisted. Some of the sections are excellent. Most deal with a single condition-cystic fibrosis, burns, or cerebral palsy--and are written by the director or another member of the special clinic dealing with that condition. There are surprising omissions, for instance, diabetes and epilepsy, and it seems a curious excuse to leave them out simply because much has been written about the conditions elsewhere. This is not a book about rarities; it is a helpful book about common problems and it ought not to omit some of the most common. Although the tide is "The chronically ill child and his family,'" some of the chapters forget to mention the family at all. Other contributors spend too long giving their own favorite drug and treatment regimen before getting on to the subject under discussion. It's the old story of a pediatrician apologizing for being interested in social factors and therefore disguising his naked interest under a cloak of organic facts in order to appear decent. The later chapters on the child in society and child-parent-hospital problems are very good. The book concludes with a review of the community services available in Maryland. The problems of the patients and the families are sometimes too superficially discussed. There is a shortage of advice on how to help them and how to deal with anxious, guilty, or angry parents. We are all more ready to recognize parental anxiety once we think we know how to deal with it.
Despite its limitations this book can be recommended to pediatricians. There is a lot of thoughtful work in it, and any reader will come away from it with many ideas that will help him to better aid the chronically ill child and his family.
Roy Meadow Department of Paediatrics and Child Health Leeds LS1 3ET, England
Genetic counseling. Birth Defects: Original Article Series. Vol. VI, No. 1, May, 1970 Edited by Daniel Bergsma, M.D., and H a r o l d Abramson, Baltimore, 1970, T h e Williams & Wilkins C o m p a n y , 106 pages. $10.00. Recent advances in experimental techniques, such as growth of amnion cells in tissue culture, and their much-publicized application to clinical genetics, have focused attention on the need for wider understanding of the uses of genetic counseling. This book contains the proceedings of a conference, sponsored by the National Foundation-March of Dimes and the Medical Society of New York, intended to acquaint practicing physicians with many aspects of genetic counseling. The patterns of inheritance and the risks of recurrence are well illustrated by a variety of diseases. Considerable discussion is devoted to the ethical and legal problems of genetic counseling. The need for accurate diagnosis, often based on highly specialized or experimental diagnostic facilities, is stressed. Many of the authors provide excellent tables and lists of diseases which currently or in the near future will be diagnosable by specific tests. Mellin's discussion is a succinct, precise analysis of the problems of counseling, including those of the counselor, and emphasizes questions still unresolved. The section on malpractice is very limited in contrast with Parker's far-ranging and fascinating view of the interaction of genetics and the law. Coverage of the field is broad and the book is
Vol. 79, No. 2, pp. 337-340
BOOK
SHELF
L. EmmettHolt, Jr.,Editor
Book reviews
The chronically ill child and his family Edited by M a t t h e w Debuskey, Springfield, Illinois, 1970, Charles C Thomas, Publisher, 203 pages. $11.50. At a time when more and more of our work is concerned with children who have chronic illness it is good that this book has been produced. It aims to provide a comprehensive approach to children with chronic illness. There are over 25 contributors, mainly from The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, and the multiplicity of authors creates obvious unevenness. My impression was that while some were strongly motivated to contribute, others had to have their arms twisted. Some of the sections are excellent. Most deal with a single condition-cystic fibrosis, burns, or cerebral palsy--and are written by the director or another member of the special clinic dealing with that condition. There are surprising omissions, for instance, diabetes and epilepsy, and it seems a curious excuse to leave them out simply because much has been written about the conditions elsewhere. This is not a book about rarities; it is a helpful book about common problems and it ought not to omit some of the most common. Although the tide is "The chronically ill child and his family,'" some of the chapters forget to mention the family at all. Other contributors spend too long giving their own favorite drug and treatment regimen before getting on to the subject under discussion. It's the old story of a pediatrician apologizing for being interested in social factors and therefore disguising his naked interest under a cloak of organic facts in order to appear decent. The later chapters on the child in society and child-parent-hospital problems are very good. The book concludes with a review of the community services available in Maryland. The problems of the patients and the families are sometimes too superficially discussed. There is a shortage of advice on how to help them and how to deal with anxious, guilty, or angry parents. We are all more ready to recognize parental anxiety once we think we know how to deal with it.
Despite its limitations this book can be recommended to pediatricians. There is a lot of thoughtful work in it, and any reader will come away from it with many ideas that will help him to better aid the chronically ill child and his family.
Roy Meadow Department of Paediatrics and Child Health Leeds LS1 3ET, England
Genetic counseling. Birth Defects: Original Article Series. Vol. VI, No. 1, May, 1970 Edited by Daniel Bergsma, M.D., and H a r o l d Abramson, Baltimore, 1970, T h e Williams & Wilkins C o m p a n y , 106 pages. $10.00. Recent advances in experimental techniques, such as growth of amnion cells in tissue culture, and their much-publicized application to clinical genetics, have focused attention on the need for wider understanding of the uses of genetic counseling. This book contains the proceedings of a conference, sponsored by the National Foundation-March of Dimes and the Medical Society of New York, intended to acquaint practicing physicians with many aspects of genetic counseling. The patterns of inheritance and the risks of recurrence are well illustrated by a variety of diseases. Considerable discussion is devoted to the ethical and legal problems of genetic counseling. The need for accurate diagnosis, often based on highly specialized or experimental diagnostic facilities, is stressed. Many of the authors provide excellent tables and lists of diseases which currently or in the near future will be diagnosable by specific tests. Mellin's discussion is a succinct, precise analysis of the problems of counseling, including those of the counselor, and emphasizes questions still unresolved. The section on malpractice is very limited in contrast with Parker's far-ranging and fascinating view of the interaction of genetics and the law. Coverage of the field is broad and the book is
Vol. 79, No. 2, pp. 337-340