Textbook of family medicine

The origins of family medicine -- Principles of family medicine -- Illness in the community -- A profile of family practice -- Philosophical and scientific foundations of family medicine -- Illness, suffering and healing -- Doctor-patient communication -- Clinical method -- The enhancement of health and the prevention of disease -- The family in health and disease -- Acute sore throat -- Headache -- Fatigue -- Hypertension -- Diabetes -- Home care -- Records -- Consultation and referral -- The health professions -- The community service network -- Alternative, or complementary, medicine -- Practice management -- Continuing self-education -- Research in family practice.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Highly successful in its first two editions, McWhinney's Textbook of Family Medicine is one of the seminal texts in the field. While many family medicine texts simply cover the disorders a practitioner might see in clinical practice (thus they become watered-down internal medicine texts), McWhinney defines the principles and practices of family medicine as a separate and distinct field of practice. His initial sections cover the basis principles and philosophies of family medicine and a later section discusses the approach to the patients with common diseases encountered in practice (these discussions not only address these clinical problems, but each is a workshop for incorporating what it means to be a family physician into everyday practice). The new edition is updated throughout with help from a group of reviewers and a new coauthor, Tom Freeman, who is Chairman of the Department of Family Medicine at McWhinney's institution, the University of Western Ontario.