The occurrence of severe mental illness doubles in the months following a mass disaster (1). But few international agencies provide the specialist help needed at this time. And too often in resource poor countries, where disasters tend to occur, local mental health services are either non-existent or completely overwhelmed. So, although basic medical care, psychological […]
Category: Guest writers
Tom Jefferson et al: EMA’s data sharing policy—towards peeping tom based medicine?
Tom Jefferson and Peter Doshi are two of the guys who battled for four years to access clinical study reports on antivirals for influenza for their Cochrane review. Here they muse on the possible arrival of look-but-don’t-touch research. Trudo Lemmens is a law professor. He has been working on the promotion of data transparency for […]
Kristy Kruithof and Mafalda Pardal: Are we entering a new era of cannabis regulation?
Throughout the world, cannabis legalisation advocates and opponents have been following the recent debates and developments in the United States (Colorado and Washington state) and Uruguay with great interest. Although international drug treaties prohibit the production, distribution, and possession of cannabis for non-medical and non-scientific purposes, several jurisdictions have implemented new laws and policies, including […]
Joe Collier: Pfizer go home
Our house guest’s question came out of the blue. Anne, who has known me for years, suddenly asked why I had stopped railing against the pharmaceutical industry. Were the companies suddenly behaving themselves? I replied with some inner satisfaction that since my retirement I was a changed man. Instead of living science and medicine, and […]
Anujeet Panesar on playing the patient
Having the fortune of being a healthy person so far, I have rarely needed to see my GP. Hence I already suspected my own experience as a patient would be different from that of many others who go to see their GP. I recently had an unexpected opportunity to compare my own and another person’s […]
Jocalyn Clark: Global health in medical journals
Last week in London we had a lively and enjoyable reunion of The BMJ’s editorial registrars. In 2002 I was registrar number 13 of the now 25 year old scheme (editor in chief Fiona Godlee was number two), and wanted to reflect on my editorial career and to provide a view of The BMJ from […]
Azeem Majeed: Three obstacles to increasing the use of statins for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease
Statistics from the OECD show that the per person use of statins in the UK is the highest in Europe and the second highest among all OECD countries. There are a number of reasons for the very high use of statins in the UK, which include the emphasis on evidence based medicine in the training of […]
Judith Hibbard: How do people become good managers of their own health?
Within the general population some people actively focus on reaching and maintaining good health, while others are more passive about the whole thing. So what makes the difference? Is learning to manage your health like learning a country’s geography—where all you probably need are a list of facts and a good reference guide? Or is […]
Steve Isaacs: Do adolescents take more risks than other age groups?
Aidan McFarlane recently gave the third Ann McPherson Lecture at Green Templeton College, Oxford. It was entitled: “Adolescent behaviours: learning from experimentation, a risky business.” McPherson and McFarlane had formerly collaborated on The Diary Of A Teenage Health Freak, a doyen of Adrian Molar humour. The experimentation of the title referred to risks that adolescents […]
Sabine Best: Clinicians, patients, and carers—having your say in palliative and end of life care research
Palliative and end of life care is under researched; there are many unanswered questions to be addressed, and yet resources for research are limited. For research to have a lasting impact, it is crucial that funders understand what is most important to patients, their families, and the professionals who work with them to improve care […]