Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine 51-3 | Page 90
J Rehabil Med 2019; 51: 236
Management of Neck Pain Disorders. A Research-
informed Approach, 1 st edition, Gwendolen Jull,
Deborah Falla, Julia Treleaven and Shaun O’Leary,
pp. 270, 2019. ISBN: 978-0-7020-7477-6. Elsevier,
Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
In 2008 the authors, who are all physiotherapists by
training and well-known researchers in the field, pu-
blished the book “Whiplash, Headache and Neck Pain.
Research-based Directions for Physical Therapies”.
The present volume is based on this text, but has been
completely rewritten.
The book consists of 19 chapters divided into 4
sections: introduction, clinical sciences, clinical assess-
ment, and clinical management. The clinical sciences
section describes the pathophysiological background
of: (i) joint movement, (ii) neuromuscular dysfunc
tion, (iii) sensorimotor control disturbances, and (iv)
nerve tissue in neck pain disorders, while the clinical
management section deals mainly with physical ma-
nagement in these 4 areas. In the section on clinical
assessment, patient history and physical examination
is covered thoroughly.
All sections and chapters are very well structured,
and the information is easy to find under each heading.
There are plenty of up-to-date references in each
chapter, and the illustrations and photographs are very
helpful to understand the content.
The title of the book is “Management of Neck Pain
Disorders”. The emphasis of the text is on management
from a physical therapist’s viewpoint, with less focus
on medical, psychological and social perspectives.
Evidence-based exercises for the neck in neuromuscu-
lar dysfunction and sensorimotor control disturbances
are very well described.
It would have been valuable also to have the authors’
views on other physiotherapeutic interventions, such
as body awareness and relaxation training for the rest
of the body, as well as general muscular strengthe-
ning activity and aerobic training to decrease pain
and increase physical functioning, which, together
with psychological and social measures, are usually
included in multimodal interdisciplinary rehabilitation
programmes for patients with neck pain disorders.
This book is highly recommended to all physiothera-
pists treating patients with neck pain disorders. Various
parts of the book would also be valuable for other
members of the interdisciplinary multimodal team.
Ola Svensson, MD, PhD
Department of Public Health Sciences and Clinical Sciences,
Division of Rehabilitation Medicine, Danderyd University
Hospital, Karolinska Institutet Stockholm, Sweden
E-mail: [email protected]
BOOK REVIEW
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license. www.medicaljournals.se/jrm
doi: 10.2340/16501977-2526
Journal Compilation © 2019 Foundation of Rehabilitation Information. ISSN 1650-1977