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Current Therapy in Endocrinology and Metabolism
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Fifth edition. C. Wayne Bardin; ed. St. Louis, Missouri: Mosby-Year Book; 1994.
This compilation of 130 chapters by more than 200 authors from 12 nations is in essence a textbook of endocrine and related metabolic disorders, with a strong emphasis on therapeutic modalities. In almost all cases, the pathogenesis, pathologic physiology, and crucial diagnostic criteria of disorders are only briefly covered. The relevance of the recommended therapy is thus apparent. All of the authors have experience and special interest in their subjects.
This should be a useful text for endocrinologists who wish to quickly look up the latest opinions on the treatment of endocrine diseases and syndromes. For practicing internists, the book provides a comprehensive survey of clinical endocrinology, focusing on what they often wish to have at their fingertips—treatment protocols.
On the negative side, a few authors seemed unable to arrive at succinct and definitive guides for physicians relatively inexperienced with the disorder being discussed. This is shown in the 11 diffuse pages on the management of type I diabetes, which can be contrasted with the superb, detailed therapeutic discussion of about the same length on the management of diabetic nephropathy. The index should be strengthened in subsequent editions. The chapter on the chronic fatigue syndrome does not belong in this book.
In this era of rapid advances in clinical science, one needs to question the usefulness of the ponderous comprehensive textbook that may be almost out of date when published. Books like this one, combined with the several excellent endocrine research publications now available, and the bimonthly journal Endocrine Reviews, should be enough to keep clinical endocrinologists at the cutting edge of progress—if they have the time. Although the concept of a book devoted to therapeutics may have been at first a sales gimmick dreamed up by a publisher, I believe that such medical texts emphasizing utility are here to stay. Updating the text every 3 to 5 years should be relatively easy for editors. This fifth edition of Current Therapy in Endocrinology and Metabolism provides relatively succinct coverage of the commonplace as well as the rare endocrine disorders in a style appropriate for generalists and endocrinologists.
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