A friend has pointed out to me that I am listed as an “exemplary professional” on the website of the Alliance for Human Research Protection. Others on the list include Florence Nightingale and the Nobel prize winner Sydney Brenner. I clearly don’t belong in such exalted company, but another on the list is Andrew Wakefield—yes, […]
374 interventions have been reported to be effective in experimental stroke; 97 were tested in clinical trials but only one of these was shown to be effective. The principle of drug development goes that if a therapy improves outcome in animals the next step is to test it in humans in a clinical trial, with […]
Having read about and witnessed scenes on television of the humanitarian disaster affecting refugees across Europe, I developed a desire to help in some form. In February 2016, the United Nations Refugee Agency stated that “It is concerned about some 4000 refugees and migrants currently reported to be living in the Calais ‘jungle’ and almost […]
When George Osborne spoke to the IMF in April about antibiotic resistance being a greater threat to mankind than cancer, one might assume that the current government had actually listened to some professional advice from the medical community. Sally Davies, the country’s Chief Medical Officer, has been raising the alarm that the growing emergence of […]
It’s wrong that surgery is up to a thousands times more dangerous in low resource settings. It’s wrong that 70,000 operating rooms worldwide don’t have access to a pulse oximeter. Most medics remember a time when they were more idealistic—but do they remember taking action? Maybe they didn’t have a local branch of Medsin. Medsin […]
Tony Delamothe retires from The BMJ today, after nearly 30 years. His experience and expertise will be greatly missed. Here I am interested in his name. “Ant[h]ony” comes from the Roman name Antonius, of unknown origin. The intrusive h comes from confusion with the Greek word ἄνθος, a flower. But what about “Delamothe”? Some surnames are […]
Usually when you hear about child marriage, you hear stories of young girls being pressured by their families to marry early for a bride price, or they marry to escape poverty, or because parents say school is too expensive. I was only 15 when I got married. My parents didn’t approve and tried to convince […]
Our prescription drugs are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer (1). Based on the best research I could find, I have estimated that psychiatric drugs alone are also the third major killer (2), mainly because antidepressants kill many elderly people through falls (3). This tells us that the system we […]
“They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do.” Was Philip Larkin right, and if so, are state-funded parenting classes the answer? Or should we be offering all children, regardless of their background, access to a state guardian from birth to 18 to help safeguard their wellbeing? One […]
Around the world patient groups in social networks are growing and even becoming of interest to researchers. So, when I got diagnosed with cluster headache (CH) syndrome I gave it a try. CH is not the typical self-help group disorder. It is rare and only occurs in bouts for most patients. When attacked, I don’t […]