Customer Reviews

Concepts of Alzheimer Disease: Biological, Clinical, and Cultural Perspectives

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This is an extraordinary book. The title should be taken literally: "Concepts" of Alzheimer's disease, and from a broad range of fields, including historical, genetic, scientific, sociologic, and philosophic viewpoints on the illness. The book is particularly timely, covering new discoveries about the origins of AD (very recently, scientists have reviewed Alzheimer's now-rediscovered microscope slides and even performed DNA tests on them), the history of genetics and psychiatry relative to AD, and the current politico-economic climate, such as the "current history" (1975-2000)of the growing Alzhiemer Association and the National Institute of Aging at NIH. The book is in collected-essay format and the authors are world experts in their fields. It is likely that, while most interested readers will have a background in one niche (such as psychology of AD), they will also be exposed to broad perspectives on AD which are intriguing and new(such as the difference between AD and normal "aging" or "senescence", or the "philosophy" of lab research developed by Fleck and Latour, or the way different kinds of focused and broad interest groups now shape Congressional policy). Alzheimer's is intrinsically complex, so the book is not a light read, but it I found it generally quite well written throughout. A sophisticated general reader can enjoy the book, because it is well written, but the main audience is probably those with some biomedical affiliation (from public health to medical sociologists to Alzheimer researchers). Many of the authors are European and most of the perspective is international; however, several of the chapters focus on US policy and US medical history.