Field of medicine: Neurology.

Format: Hardcover book.

Audience: Neurologists and other physicians who treat patients with multiple sclerosis.

Purpose: To address the challenging and controversial issues surrounding the treatment of patients with multiple sclerosis.

Content: This all-encompassing work covers all aspects of multiple sclerosis, from basic science to the successes and failures of contemporary research to the holistic management of patients. Discussions of holistic management are not limited to prevention of progression or improvement of motor deficit but rather focus on the overall quality of the patient's life. The book addresses some issues that many books on this topic do not.

Highlights: The authors have paid exceptional attention to certain facets of multiple sclerosis. Rather than glossing over such areas as pregnancy, psychological health, sexual dysfunction, and the role of specialty nursing, the book devotes independent chapters to them. The standard approach-defining the issue, diagnosis, management options, and future considerations-is used.

Limitations: The illustrations, photographs, and diagrams are somewhat sparse, although effective.

Related reading: This book joins a plethora of books on multiple sclerosis published in the past two decades, such as Handbook of Multiple Sclerosis, 2nd edition, by Cook (Marcel Dekker, 1996); Multiple Sclerosis, by Kesselring (Cambridge Univ Pr, 1997); Multiple Sclerosis: Pathology, Diagnosis, and Management, by Hallpike, Adams, and Tourtellotte (Williams & Wilkins, 1983); and Multiple Sclerosis: Its Impact from Childhood to Old Age, by Bauer and Hanefeld (WB Saunders, 1993). These other books are of similar length, but all lack the holistic approach of Multiple Sclerosis: Clinical Challenges and Controversies.

Reviewer: Sean D. Ruland, DO, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois.