BOOK REVIEWS : Principles and Practice of Geriatric medicine 3rd edn edited by John Pathy. Wiley,...

Missouri 1998, 484 pages, £19á95, ISBN

0 8151 2606 9.

Spread over 484 pages (including the

index), this comprehensive multi-edited

book is aimed at health and social care

students, and practitioners, who are

involved with people with dementia and

their support network. The book comprises

29 chapters which are divided into six

units, excluding the Introduction: The

Normal Brain (three chapters), Alzheimer's

Disease (Six chapters), Management (10

chapters), Special Issues (four chapters),

Community Support (four chapters),

Future Prospects (one chapter). The

Appendix to the text also includes a

comprehensive Glossary of Terms and an

itinerary of American based contact

addresses and numbers for societies

relating to Alzheimer's disease, other

dementias and gerontology.

The ®rst 10 chapters of this book are

concerned with an appraisal of the

biomedical approach to understanding

Alzheimer's disease, and includes a

review of its clinical features, neuropsy-

chological assessment approaches and

aetiology. These chapters have much to

commend them, making a challenging area

(both in terms of the biology of dementia

and the complexity of the language) acces-

sible. Running through each chapter is a

useful succinct summary of the main

features of the preceding text, a feature

which allows readers to pause and re¯ect

upon their understanding. I found this a

very useful addition, especially when the

text was reviewing current concepts on

aetiology and pathogenesis.

The remaining 19 chapters offer a

diverse insight into caring approaches

applicable to people with dementia and

their support network, ranging from advice

on daily care and management to elder

abuse to issues surrounding education and

support for carers. It was also good to see a

chapter dedicated to the terminal care of

people with dementia, a most overlooked

area of dementia care nursing (in terms of

evaluated nursing practice), and that

promoting quality of life in this most

intimate act of care was given a primary

focus throughout the chapter. My only

criticism of the book is that the ®nal unit,

dedicated to promoting areas of research,

is a little super®cial in content and it

would have been useful to see a greater

emphasis placed upon a review of the

subjective experience of Alzheimer's

disease. However, that said, if you are

looking for an accessible and comprehen-

sive text on issues relating to dementia

care practice, this book would make an

ideal place to start.

John Keady

RMN Dip PP RNT Cert HEd

Lecturer in Nursing,

University of Wales,

Bangor,

Wales

Principles and Practice of Geriatric medi-

cine 3rd edn edited by John Pathy. Wiley,

Chichester, 1998, 1800 pages, £265á00,

ISBN 0 471 96348 8.

This comprehensive book comes in two

volumes and has precisely 200 contribu-

tors. The contributors are mainly European

and North American but there is one

Australian. Whilst not truly international,

the text could be taken as the de®nitive

developed countries' view of geriatric

medicine. The two volumes are divided

simply on the basis of length, each being

approximately the same size, with four

parts: Human Ageing, Ageing and Society,

Medicine in Old Age and Delivery of

Health Care. The third part is the largest,

spanning both volumes and, while it

begins with coverage of generic issues

such as assessment and pharmacology, it

mainly comprises an account per chapter

of a range of disorders. However, some

interesting issues such a sleep, smell and

taste are also included.

From the gerontological nursing and

teaching perspective the ®rst two parts

are probably the most interesting and the

historical overview which precedes part 1

should also be mentioned. In this rela-

tively brief overview Roger Briggs takes in

the key ®gures, such as Warren and Isaacs,

and surveys the key dimensions of geri-

atric medicine, such as multiple pathology

and rehabilitation. Unlike many multi-au-

thored texts, similar to the present one,

most of the chapters are of a reasonable

length and form more than mere samples

of the areas they cover. This is particularly

apparent in the early chapter entitled

Biological Perspectives, which is a really

excellent introduction to the biological

theories and effects of ageing. However, a

more conventional approach to theories of

ageing comes in the chapter on evolution,

which is actually contained in the section

entitled Ageing and Society. It is very

heartening to see a signi®cant contribu-

tion, early in the book, on sexuality; this

subject is more commonly included these

days but rarely so prominently.

Whilst many chapters are commendably

thorough, this is not the case for all of

them and the chapter on constipation is

one such example: it merely runs through

the available treatments. Other areas of

relevance to nursing such as pressure sores

and incontinence are covered, but any

evidence of nursing research or even a

mention of nursing care is thin on the

ground. This is, however, common in such

texts. Nursing is mentioned in passing in

two other places and receives special

mention in about 100 words in Michael

Denham's chapter on long-term care. This

is an excellent place for it to appear but I

question the editing and proof-reading

procedures, especially in this enlightened

day and age, which allow the nurse to be

referred to as `she' and `her'. The psycho-

logical and psychiatric aspects of the book

were disappointing in terms of quantity

and quality. On the subject of memory the

chapter on psychology refers the reader to

a later chapter on managing memory

disorder but in neither chapter, nor the

ones on dementia, is the effect of ageing on

memory or the measurement of cognitive

function covered in much depth. Never-

theless, a medical library without these

two volumes will be a poorer library and it

is hoped that many nursing libraries will

also be able to afford them.

Roger Watson

BSc PhD RGN CBiol MIBiol

Professor of Nursing,

School of Nursing,

The University of Hull,

Hull,

England

Maternal Child Nursing Care by Donna L.

Wong and Shannon E. Perry. Mosby-Year

Book Inc, Missouri, 1998, 1900 pages,

£52á00, ISBN 0 8151 2837 1.

This is the ®rst edition of a new textbook

from Mosby on Maternal child Nursing

Care. It essentially covers both maternity

and paediatric nursing care within a single

text, and although very large, the authors

claim it has reduced the amount of dupli-

Book reviews

528 Ó 1999 Blackwell Science Ltd, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 30(2), 526±531