Orthopaedic clinical examination:
an evidence-based approach for physical therapists

Cleland J. "Orthopaedic clinical examination: an evidence-based approach for physical therapists", Elsevier, Philadelphia 2005: 515 pages. Prize awarded to the French edition : "Examen clinique de l’appareil locomoteur. Tests, évaluation et niveaux de preuves" Elsevier Masson SAS, Issy-les-Moulineaux 2007 : 514 pages, 59 euros. 
Many clinical examination techniques or functional tests used by clinicians to establish a diagnosis have been evaluated as to their performance. Yet information on the usefulness and reliability of the various techniques of clinical examination is not widely available, neither in an educational context nor in published form. This systematic review, dedicated to the locomotor system, is an example of the kind of information clinicians would like to have access to for all clinical categories.
> Read Prescrire's review (in French)

Shyness, how normal behavior became a sickness

Lane C. "Shyness, how normal behavior became a sickness"  Yale University Press, New Haven 2007: 272 pages. Prize awarded to the French edition "Comment la psychiatrie et l'industrie pharmaceutique ont médicalisé nos émotions" Flammarion, Paris 2009: 379 pages, 26 euros. 
The DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) is considered to be the world standard when it comes to psychiatric research and diagnosis. The history of the DSM, revealed in this book, shows the arbitrariness that has characterised its writing and subsequent revisions. Including the creation of supposed new illnesses, often as a function of drugs in search of a market. 
> Read Prescrire's review (in French)

Sans-papiers mais pas sans droits

GISTI "Sans-papiers mais pas sans droits" (5e édition) GISTI, Paris 2009 : 72 pages, 5 euros (+ mailing charges). Available from GISTI, 3 villa Marcès 75011 Paris or online from the GISTI site, www.gisti.org. Can be downloaded free from the "Publications" section of the GISTI website.
This booklet holds the keys to understanding the social welfare system and the basic rights of the citizen in France; healthcare is an important component of these. It also contains a call to collective action, indispensable to make inroads against great injustice.
> Read Prescrire's review (in French)

Le guide de l’expertise médicale amiable en 10 points

Kidari F. under the direction of Aouar L. "Le guide de l’expertise médicale amiable en 10 points" Association des Paralysés de France (APF) and the Ombudsman of the French government, Paris 2010: 38 pages. May be downloaded free from the APF website www.apf.asso.fr, in the "droits et démarches" section, under "Guides". Also available free of charge (postal charges may apply) in printed form from the regional offices of the APR (addresses available online at www.apf.asso.fr, under "APF en France").
For victims of accidents in France, the "expertise médicale amiable", literally the "amicable medical evaluation", is a crucial step in ensuring fair compensation for damages sustained. This simple, 10-point guide is a considerable help, to make sure that victims are not shortchanged during this evaluation.
> Read Prescrire's review (in French)

Pharmacognosie. Phytochimie, Plantes médicinales

Bruneton J. “Pharmacognosie. Phytochimie, Plantes médicinales” (4e édition), EM Inter / Lavoisier Tec & Doc, Paris 2009 : 1 270 pages, 165 euros.
Amidst a bumper crop of books and publications about phytotherapy that ignore any notion of clinical evaluation, this book is an unusual branch that is well worth grabbing onto. Although limited, clinical evaluation data in this domain do in fact exist, and can be gathered and analysed, allowing many plants to be used in therapeutic practice with a reasonable estimate of their risk-benefit balance.
> Read Prescrire's review (in French)

©Prescrire 7 October 2010

Source: "Prix Prescrire 2010" Rev Prescrire 2010; 30 (324): IV.