There is a new section dealing with psychological symptoms such as confusion, anxiety and anger, plus a focus throughout on the special needs of close family members. Regnard and Tempest have reinstated sections on drug dosages in children and managing diabetes, omitted from the third edition. Clinical questions are posed along the left, with conditional answers on the right. Extensive notes, presented in very small print after each table, supplement this brief information. This organizational scheme makes the book easy to use in a clinical situation, but more difficult to use as an in-depth learning tool.
Most tables give clear guidance on what to assess before and after each action.
There are ample references to original sources cited which the authors state are current through October, 1997. Throughout the book, mention is made of notes and revision updates available on the CLIP update service. It would be better to have the subset of updates for these chapters available to purchasers of the book for free or at least for a reduced price. If this is not possible there should at least be some indication in the book that there will be a charge for these updates. The inclusion of a drug formulary with listings for over 50 drugs commonly used for symptom relief makes the small book more complete.