Alopecia areata is an unpredictable disorder that affects more than two and a half million men, women, and children in the United States and Canada. Causing patchy hair loss on the scalp and sometimes elsewhere on the body, this mysterious, noncontagious condition can be treated but it cannot yet be cured. Alopecia Areata: Understanding and Coping with Hair Loss is a sensitive yet straightforward guide to the diagnosis and treatment of this poorly understood disease. With great compassion, the authors explain how hair loss can profoundly affect a person's quality of life. They discuss what it means to be diagnosed with alopecia areata, and provide medically reliable information on the latest research, diagnosis, and treatment options.

Thompson and Shapiro also offer practical strategies for living with alopecia areata, which can go in and out of remission without any apparent reason. They discuss the physical and psychological adjustments to wearing a hairpiece and give pointe...

Customer Reviews:

3 of 3 found this review helpful:
Good overview, 2002-01-24
A really good overview for those newly diagnosed (or friends, family thereof). Provides sufficient information that an alopecia sufferer is unlikely to pursue quacky, expensive, ineffective treatments. Also includes psychological impacts of the condition. Skip the other books about Alopecia (I've read them all). This is the best there is.

15 of 17 found this review helpful:
Excellent, easy to read, easy to understand, inspiring, 1999-08-25
As a person recently diagnosed with Alopecia Universalis (all body), I found this book to be very informative, as well as easy to read and understand.

It helped me to understand that there are other people in the world with the same problem that I have.

I would strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about alopecia.

I understand through my dermatologist that Jerry Shapiro is THE person for North America when it comes to knowing about alopecia.