When I hit the publish button for my recent blogpost, nothing would have prepared me for what was coming. I would have gladly accepted the usual 400 views with a few dozen comments. 72 hours and 2 lakh views later, I found myself the centre of discussion on over a dozen news media outlets, both […]
Cathy A Alessi and Michael V Vitiello: Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia
This blog is part of a series of blogs linked with BMJ Clinical Evidence, a database of systematic overviews of the best available evidence on the effectiveness of commonly used interventions. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) has been consistently demonstrated to be efficacious in a wide variety of settings and patient populations including older […]
Desmond O’Neill: The success and opportunities arising from population ageing
There is an extra uplift from spring conferences which mirrors the freshness of the season. My own traverse started in Vienna with a reflection on how the hegemony of the English language impoverishes our access to German speaking culture, distancing us from a rich spirit of inquiry that suffuses Germanophone congresses. Philosophical and cultural topics […]
The BMJ Today: More evidence on the harms of overdiagnosis
• More evidence on the harms of over diagnosis: Teppo Järvinen and colleagues argue that evidence for stratifying risk of fracture and subsequent drug therapy to prevent hip fracture is insufficient to warrant our current approach. Being labelled as at risk of fracture imposes a psychological burden. Drug treatment is associated with adverse events, such […]
Nicki Haywood: A carer’s perspective on how doctors can help patients with MND
When Mum was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND); it was to change my Mum’s life, it was to change our families’ lives. At the start we were thrown into an unexpected situation with limited knowledge on how to manage and cope with this situation. We didn’t know what challenges we would face, or how […]
Neville Goodman’s metaphor watch: I’m in the army now
Many metaphors are helpful; many metaphors are irritating; a few are harmful. It’s not surprising that military metaphors abound in medical writing: disease is the enemy; drugs are the weapons with which to fight. Then we can write about, “The armed truce between the intestinal microflora and host mucosal immunity,” or about how our victory […]
Sandra Lako: Ebola in Sierra Leone—one year on
Today marks the one year anniversary since Ebola was confirmed in Sierra Leone. It is not a happy one year anniversary, but there is hope. Thankfully the numbers have significantly reduced from a top high of about 500 new cases per week to about eight cases per week. That is due, amongst other things, to an […]
The BMJ Today: How do editors make decisions?
• How do editors make decisions? How can we improve editorial practices and the quality of biomedical publications while promoting greater transparency and trust in the system? These are some of the questions that have been discussed in the last seven international congresses on peer review in biomedical publication. In an editorial in The BMJ today, […]
David Gilbert: Patient as expert
During my psychiatric years, I could only dream of being an equal to health professionals. These days therefore, to be valued as an “expert” is seductive. But we have to move beyond flattery as it makes for an ego-fuelled heart and soggy mind. I was one of five on the patient panel at the recent […]
Gillian MacDougall: Why I support a change in the law on assisted suicide
I have been a supporter of legalising assisted dying since the late Margo MacDonald first proposed a change of the law in Scotland in 2010. When the revised bill (Assisted Suicide [Scotland] Bill 2013) was launched, I decided it was time to “put my head above the parapet” and become a public supporter. At that […]