Backache: predicament at home, nemesis at work -- Functional somatic syndromes : fibromyalgia and the like -- Reason v. the therapeutic menu: conservative, empirical, aggressive, alternative, and complementary therapies -- The concept of regional musculoskeletal illness -- Regional disorders of the axial skeleton -- Regional disorders of the upper extremity -- Regional disorders of the lower extremity -- Neurovascular syndromes -- The disabled, the disallowed, the disaffected and the disavowed -- Epidemiology and the work-relatedness of regional musculoskeletal disorders -- The vortex of disability determination -- The aged worker.