Gale's addition to its stable of health resources fills a gap in consumer health collections by providing much-needed current information about disorders of one of the most complex systems of the human body.
The two consecutively paged volumes contain approximately 400 signed, alphabetical entries. The authors are health-care professionals and medical writers. The articles cover diseases (Batten disease, Rasmussen's encephalitis); syndromes (Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, Tourette syndrome); drugs (Antimigraine medications, Valporic acid and divalproex sodium); treatments (Acupuncture, Radiation); therapies (Craniotomy, Bodywork therapies); and diagnostic equipment and devices (Electronic personal assistive mobility devices, CT scan). There are also entries for anatomical and physiological topics such as Cerebral circulation and common symptoms such as dizziness.
The articles are one to four pages long. All have shaded boxes with definitions of key terms and resource lists, and many have color illustrations. An alphabetical list of all articles appears at the beginning of each volume. The lack of see references in this list and in the text is a minor inconvenience. There is a glossary at the end of volume 2. The reading level is fairly high, so public and consumer health collections will also need resources at a lower literacy level.
There is some duplication and overlap with other Gale medical encyclopedias. The article Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is identical to that in The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine (1999). Some material from The Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders (2002) appears here because of the role of neurotransmitters in mental illness. Since many genetic diseases affect the nervous system, there is some overlap with The Gale Encyclopedia of Genetic Disorders (2001) also. The article on Canavan disease is almost identical. Nevertheless, most public and consumer health libraries will want The Gale Encyclopedia of Neurological Disorders because of its focus on complex conditions that are not well covered in other lay medical encyclopedias. Barbara Bibel
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