JAMA 24 Apr 2013 Vol 309 1691 Last week I welcomed the imminent arrival of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) because it would classify every human being as insane, and so should provide the world with a good opportunity to step back and decide what psychiatry is really about. This open […]
The mood among clinical commissioners less than a month into the new system is characterised by a determination to move care out of hospitals, frustration at legal and financial impediments to making change happen, and considerable confidence that they can make a difference. At the first conference of NHS Clinical Commissioners—an independent group launched by […]
In 2012, MSF projects in several countries saw an important increase in cases of malaria, and a prolonged peak in areas of seasonal transmission. More than six emergency interventions were launched to fight this increase. While the past decade has seen drastic improvements in the response to malaria (rapid diagnostic tests, affordable artemisinin based combination […]
I doubt few areas of medical practice are more ethically charged than the forced treatment of people with mental disorders. Recently a colleague forwarded me some comments made in March this year by Juan Mendez, the special rapporteur on torture, regarding mental illness. (For anyone unfamiliar with the United Nations human rights structures, a special […]
A wise man once said that he knew nothing at all except that he knew that he knew nothing at all. Socrates would have made a good medical student. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is characterised by overwhelming fatigue, post-exertional malaise, cognitive symptoms, sleep disturbances, and a vague constellation of muscle and joint aches. It is […]
As a follower of Gandhi, I was always fascinated by the subtitle of his autobiography—”Experiments with truth.” Gandhi noted, “Far be it for me to claim any degree of perfection for these experiments. I claim for them nothing more than does a scientist who, though he conducts his experiments with the utmost accuracy, forethought, and […]
Global health leaders will gather in Abu Dhabi on 24 and 25 April for a vaccine summit to discuss recent accomplishments and seek ways to expand the impact of childhood vaccination under the decade of vaccines (DoV), an initiative for collective action announced by Bill Gates at the 2010 World Economic Forum. Promoting greater affordability […]
In retrospect, 1999 could be seen as the low point for cancer control policy in the UK. In that year, the Eurocare 2 study showed that the survival of patients with cancer was lower in the UK than several other European countries with similar healthcare systems. This finding has since been replicated by much further […]
JAMA 17 Apr 2013 Vol 309 1607 Why do some babies get colic every evening until they are about three months old? Dunno. Why do some children and adolescents get migraine? Dunno. Connect the two dunnos and you get a third—why are children and adolescents who get migraine six times more likely to have a […]
My second day in South Sudan, the start of a nine month posting with MSF in this war torn, dustbowl of a town called Nasir, and I’m standing here in the medical ward, utterly lost. In every sense of the word. How did previous doctors manage the workload out here? I’ve got no idea. In […]