Customer Reviews

The Official Patient's Sourcebook on Behcet's Disease: A Revised and Updated Directory for the Internet Age

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Don't buy this Patient's Sourcebook expecting to find a lot of content that's specifically about Behcet's disease. There are 119 pages in this book, and only 14 of those pages have direct and (somewhat) useful info on BD. The BD info that does appear includes an incomplete listing of available informational websites on Behcet's (one of which is incorrect, a hazard of Internet-related books), with a few reprinted journal abstracts and a clinical trial writeup thrown in to give the impression that this book is more about Behcet's than it really is. The short section on "What Research is Being Done?" has no direct information on current Behcet's research at all, instead referring readers to a few US government health institutes/organizations. The "Books on Behcet's Disease" chapter lists many books that are out of print or severely outdated, and misses the chance to include a couple of good patient resource books that are currently available through amazon.com and the American Behcet's Disease Association. Looking at the publisher's website, I saw that the people who put this book together have produced several hundred different Patient's Sourcebooks on every imaginable, rare disease. While I haven't seen any of the other books, the format of this one makes me think that they use the same basic outline (and probably a lot of the same pages) to produce each one -- just inserting the name of the "disease of the day" into specific slots in each chapter. It would be better if the authors had created only one book instead, and called it "The Official Patient's Sourcebook on Using the Internet to Find Medical Information."

If you've never done any medical research on the Internet, then you might find this book useful. There are listings of health-related web sites, and info on accessing medical search engines. But there's also a lot of "padding" in the 52-page Appendices (which is almost half the book): sections on how to use the web to research whatever medications your doctor has prescribed; an overview of good nutrition; a section on how to find medical libraries in your area; and info on "your rights as a patient" and how to choose a medical insurance plan. The creators of this medical series have come up with a great marketing/publishing idea by putting out books about diseases that most people have never heard of -- I just wish this book actually contributed to the BEHCET'S literature.

This book contains everything that i was looking for. It guides you in the right directions to find all available information on Behcet's Disease. It serves me as a guide and an organizer while researching my disease. I recommend this to especially new patients.