Jen P -

Here is what I found to be useful about the book.

First, although much of the information in it is available online, I
find it nice to have all the information collated into one coherent
source with a unified style of presentation. It keeps the various
"pieces" of the disease in proportion to each other. That’s not
necessarily the case with online resources which may go into one
aspect of the disease in quite a bit of detail but skimp on
other parts.

Second - and I guess this is really related to the first point - it’s
nice to have a book with an MD’s name listed as an author that I
can give to other MD’s for them to read and return. If I start
explaining CAH to a doctor, it can degenerate into my gibbering about
levels of 17 OHP while their eyes glaze over. Having all the
information in one place like this with a Doctor’s name on the
cover means that I can give this to a doctor and (generally) have
them accept that CAH is a real medical condition that they
have to be concerned about.

Thirdly, one of the appendicies of the book lists useful online
resources. Some of them I had seen before, some of them I had not.

Finally, it’s a fairly cheap book, coming in at under $20.

The only downside I can see is that a book is going to become
dated as time goes on. I’m personally rather excited by the
development of timed-release cortef pills, for instance, but they
are not going to be widely available for some time yet.

Does that help? I guess the bottom line is that although I could
have gathered all this information online, having it in one place
is rather nice.

Niles.