
Merck - Merck
Release date: 2006-04-07
Hardcover
Author: Mark H. Beers
Clinical & Internal Medicine, Family & Health, Medical diagnosis, Therapeutics (General), Medical, Medical / Nursing, Diagnosis, Medical / Diagnosis, Internal Medicine, Reference, Handbooks, manuals, etc, Medicine, Therapeutics, Clinical Medicine: Professional




This is the third edition I use. I am a psychiatrist but like to keep up with what happens in other fields of medicine. I use it to look up illnesses and symptoms my patients and friends com up with. I use it to get ideas about diagnoses. I believe this is a book to recommend to new doctors. Of course the articles about each somatic state are very short so they need to be followed up elsewhere. But this book is a real good starter. I recommend i warmly.
This is probably a redundant review since all the reviews are 5* reviews, but I'll give you my perspective. This is the third copy of this book I own, the other two being previous editions. If I could own only one medical book, this would be it. While it has grown ~ 500 pages since the last edition I own, it's all good. Every topic is covered both succinctly and authoritatively and kept up to date. The section on AIDS for instance was excellent, nonexistant from my previous edition. Same with Autism and countless other topics. Cross referencing this with other medical texts, time and again the information was accurate, current and on target. The editorial style between topics was consistent, highly readable and easy to absorb quickly. Sitting down to read a topic was always a pleasurable learning experience - loaded with information and to the point.Most importantly for a book of this nature the Index and Tables of contents for each chapter allow you to get to information quickly. This book makes highly effective use of your time investment in a topic.
This book ranks as THE essential book to have in any medical library, whether your library consists of one book or (as mine does), several walls of bookshelves full of books.