The Merck Manual Home Health Handbook: Third Home Edition Hardcover – Unabridged, October 13, 2009

This is an amazingly interesting and informative book for the kind of patient who wants to understand what the doctors have explained for the patient's specific case. In a particular situation recently, I was given large amounts of information about two maladies, which all made sense, but in a slightly disjointed and incomplete way.This 3rd edition Merck manual home health handbook not only agreed with everything I was told by two groups of specialists, but also joined it all together in a unified picture, and even extended my understanding beyond what they told me. For each malady, there were about 4 pages of clear explanation in this book. It helps me to understand why doctors ask certain kinds of unusual questions which initially seem irrelevant.So I would say that for the curious, or very curious, patient who wants to get more clarity and detail and background on what the doctors say, this book is really ideal. The problem with this, I guess, is that this manual is not useful on its own for self-diagnosis. A much better book for doing a kind of "self-triage" to determine if it's a good idea to go to a doctor is the "Merck Manual Go-To Home Guide for Symptoms". This Home Health Handbook is really only useful after a condition has been diagnosed, or as general reading for chronic conditions, or because the reader is really, really curious about medical conditions.This book is so readable, I think it would be possible, given sufficient years of reading time, to read it all through, or at least skim over the pages to get an overview of health issues for future reference. But 322 articles in 2100 pages is a bit daunting though.The printing and binding of this book are extremely good. It's a really "nice to possess" book which looks like it's intended to last a hundred years. The index, by the way, is also very good.Concerning whether this is really the 2nd or 3rd edition, yes it is the 3rd edition. The copyright page iv is confusing on this point, but when you read the following page v, it's clear that the 1st edition was 1997, 2nd edition was 2003, and this 3rd edition is 2009.

The Merck manual has been around for many years and has been the reference guide for doctors, nurses and anyone else interested in medical issues. This home edition has 2, 368 pages of medical information written by 300 medical experts. This amazing giant volume is organized into 26 detailed sections. They are as follows:(1) Fundamentals. (2) Drugs. (3)Digestive disorders. (4) Liver and Gallbladder disorders. (5) Kidney and Urinary tract disorders. (6) Heart and blood vessel disorders. (7) Lung and airway disorders. (8) Bone, joint, and muscle disorders. (9) Brain, spinal cord and nerve disorders. (10) Mental health disorders. (11) Disorders of nutrition and metabolism. (12) Hormonal disorders. (13) Blood disorders. (14) Cancer. (15) Immune disorders. (16) Infections. (17) Skin disorders. (18) Mouth and dental disorders. (19) Ear, nose, and throat disorders. (20) Eye disorders. (21) Men's health issues. (22) Women's health issues. (23) Children's health issues. (24) Older people's health issues. (25) Injuries and poisoning. (26) Special subjects.In conclusion, this is a book that should be in every home as a health reference guide.Rating: 5 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Never Trust a Politician)

My wife is a retired nurse and she researches medical things all the time. This volume is a recent update of the one she used for the prior 20 years and she has tremendous appreciation for the presentation of the material within these covers. She recommends it for family use.

Anyone who has ever wanted more information or clarification for what was said during a doctor's visit should consider having this book. Great information presented in a clear manner. My familiarity with earlier editions led me to purchase several as gifts for some health professions students I know. They have immediately found the information extremely helpful, even so with the many more technical textbooks they own. I encourage my own students to begin building their professional libraries and this book is the first one I recommend.

After I purchased my copy here, amazon corrected the ISBN number originally posted on the amazon site, & it now matches the book I received. Not as well-illustrated or easy to understand as the "American College Physicians Complete Home Medical Guide", but is more complete & has twice as many pages. Has general color illustrations of body systems, but disease illustrations are small & in B&W. Unlike the American College book, there are no photographs here. On the positive side, the discussion of each disease is more thorough here, & each disease contains sections on "Symptoms", "Diagnosis", & "Treatment." I can't vouch for the accuracy of either book, but this book generally seems to have more advanced & detailed discussions, while the American College book is easier for the layman to comprehend. Both are useful.

The Merck manuals, for the docs, vets, and non-professionals, are a wonderfully helpful information resource.

Product arrived quickly. Quality exceeded description. Excellent service and excellent home resource.

Amazon's product headline says "The Merck Manual Home Health Handbook: Third Home Edition", but the book I received says second edition - 2009. The ISBNs on the book, on MerckBooks' web site, and Amazon's web site all match each other but MerckBooks' site doesn't mention a 3rd edition, so I don't see why Amazon calls it the 3rd edition. Great book, in any case.