Multiple Sclerosis: The Facts You Need
by Dr. Paul O'Connor

Reviewed by DeanOP
MSWorld Book Reviewer

This is a wonderful little book by the chief of the Division of Neurology at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto. Dr. O'Connor writes with great sensitivity, demonstrated by his ability to present options without pressuring the person with MS or caregiver in any particular direction, and sensibility, leaving his personal opinions, for the most part, aside and jumping on no particular bandwagons.

The book, written in a simple and engaging style, covers almost all you'd want to know about MS: symptoms, diagnosis, causes, definition, treatments (including "alternative" medicine), and management (both chemical and physical). Because it was written in 1998 the information on current studies of the "ABC" drugs may be somewhat (but only somewhat) dated. However, I learned many things I had not known before, such as the difference between "spasticity" and "spasm", and the fact that major studies of the ABC drugs are very new to the pharmacopoeia (1993-1996). Dr. O'Connor explains the lengthy process by which a drug is brought to market and declared safe for use. He is also quite openly informative as to the disagreement that exists in the diagnosis, management and treatment of MS. I was reassured to read that the jury is still out on a number of factors, and that if my neurologist says "X" while yours says "Y" it may mean that there is, as yet no definitive answer, rather than meaning that one of us has a "bad" doctor. He discusses many, if not most, of the drugs used to manage MS symptoms, the rationale for using them, and (where appropriate) his experience as to their efficacy. Dr. O'Connor spends a good deal of effort explaining the various classifications of MS, the Relapsing/Remitting versus Progressive classification, the Possible/Probable/Definite classification, and the Benign versus Chronic classification. He explains how they inter-relate and how they conflict. This is, I feel, a valuable aspect of the book since there seems to be much confusion about all of those terms. MS is confusing enough without one's getting lost in a semantic limbo.

Probably there are many people who, reeling from the shock of diagnosis and/or frightened by symptoms, want a book to tell them exactly what steps to take in managing/treating their MS. This is not that book. This book does NOT tell you exactly what you should do. Rather, it touches on all the possibilities without recommending any in particular. Personally (and how else can I write, after all?) I prefer to be given an unopinionated overview of the options, so I'd definitely recommend this book for anyone, newly-diagnosed, care-giver or old hand, who is feeling open-minded enough to look at a wide variety of possibilities for dealing with MS.