Physiotherapy July 2001/vol 87/no 7

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Books on Sports Medicine

Beaconsfield Publishers, 20 Chiltern Hills Road,Beaconsfield, Bucks HP9 1PL2000 (ISBN 0 906584 48 5). 322 pages

by Emlyn Thomas RSHom DPhysEd £25This textbook aims to provide a clear and comprehensiveinsight into homoeopathy and its application in thetreatment of sports injuries and exercise.

The book is divided into three main sections. The firstdiscusses the principles behind homoeopathy, how toconduct an effective homoeopathy assessment andmanagement of treatment. I personally found this sectionvery interesting as I had a very limited knowledge ofhomoeopathy and its use in the treatment of sports injuries.

The second section reviews the application ofhomoeopathy. It discusses traumatic injuries, first aid,overuse injuries, and then takes each area of the body inturn and suggests possible homoeopathic remedies thatcould be used for each condition.

Chapter 10 gives a list of homoeopathic remedies. Itdescribes where each remedy originates from, then lists thephysical and emotional symptoms and conditions that it canbe used to treat. This part could be used as a referencesection to help clinicians select appropriate homoeopathicremedies for injured athletes.

The third section discusses the advanced uses ofhomoeopathy, looking at athletes’ susceptibility to injury,enhancing performance and how homoeopathy caninfluence these areas. Chapter 13 briefly looks at othercomplementary therapies and techniques.

The book is well written, with chapters including casestudies to help readers understand and relate to thehomoeopathic assessment and treatment of sports injuries.

Having read this text I feel that homoeopathy is a veryextensive and complicated area of medicine and one whichyou would require training in to practise effectively. Thisbook would be of value to someone with an interest inhomoeopathic medicine or for use as a reference book forpeople with experience in homoeopathic medicine.

Kathleen Inch BSc MCSP

Homoeopathy for Sports, Exercise and Dance

Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford1999 (ISBN 0 7506 1576 1). 178 pages

by Edward Grayson £20The stated purpose of this book is to provide an original andpractical medico-legal book aimed at practitioners at alllevels concerned with what the author describes as the‘rapidly developing growth area of sports medicine’. Theauthor is a barrister, a visiting professor of sport and law atAnglia Polytechnic University, and the founding president ofthe British Association for Sport and the Law.

I found this book difficult to read, primarily because theformat and language was very ‘legalistic’, with numerousreferences/reports of legal cases. While many of thesereferences were brief summaries, several were directquotations, and in the majority of cases they were reportedin legal language, making interpretation difficult for anuninitiated reader.

The book is organised in 12 chapters, nine of which arebased on the World Medical Association’s ethical guidelinesfor doctors involved in sport, which were first drafted in

1981, with subsequent amendments in 1987 and 1993. Thereare 13 guidelines in total, and they cover a variety of aspectsof professional ethics, including drugs, children,professional sport, confidentiality and communication.Some chapters are devoted to a single guideline, and otherscombine two or three guidelines with a common theme. Allchapters attempt to illustrate the guidelines with examplesfrom sporting practice, and with numerous references tolegal court cases.

The use of so many references to court cases, and also aconsiderable number of lengthy direct quotations fromother legal, sport and public media sources (in somechapters amounting to almost 50% of the text), tends tomake the text disjointed and difficult to follow.

While recognising that understanding the legal issues andimplications surrounding physiotherapy practice in sport isbecoming ever more important in this era of increasingprofessionalism in sport, I am not convinced that this bookeasily clarifies the situation.

Overall, while this book may be of value to practitioners insport who have some understanding of legal processes (andlanguage!) I do not feel that the majority of physiotherapistsin sports medicine will gain much insight from reading it.

Kate Kerr PhD BA MCSP

Ethics, Injuries and the Law inSports Medicine