Interdisciplinary Rehabilitation of Low Back Pain.

The overall purpose of this text is to bridge the present gap between theory and practice by providing a comprehensive reference for clinical practice that emphasizes practical information essential for evaluating and treating low back pain in an interdisciplinary approach.

Section 1 is composed of four chapters devoted to the importance of interdisciplinary practice and the differentiation between surgical and nonsurgical practice. Section 2 is devoted to neural blockade and needle therapies that include acupuncture. Section 3 is made up of four chapters on physical medicine versus physical therapy. Section 4 covers the pharmacological approach to treatment. Section 5 deals with psychological therapies used to cope with low back pain, including hypnosis, family, and group therapy. Section 6 summarizes the book, covering pain centers, work hardening, back schools, and functional restoration in general.

This book may be a helpful overview of what, other than physical therapy, can be done for the patient who has low back pain. In all areas of therapy discussed, the editors have chosen to use other professionals outside the field of therapy to present information, thus giving a very narrow and skewed view of a profession that has a great deal to offer the patient with nonsurgical back injury. The obvious weakness of the book is that the therapy profession is not addressed by any physical therapists, although there is one chapter written by an occupational therapist.

For example, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, electrotherapy, and back school are addressed by a physician, and manipulation is covered by a chiropractor, with no mention of mobilization or soft tissue work.

The chapters on work hardening and work capacity evaluation are conscise and provide an excellent overview of the current trends in the area of low back evaluation and restoration in the industrial setting.

The text does give a good general overview of what can be done for the rehabilitation of the low back from a nonsurgical perspective. Its glaring weakness is its failure to address the physical therapy profession using authors from the physical therapy profession.