Articles

Conference on neuroscience and pragmatism: Productive prospects

The conference "Neuroscience and Pragmatism: Productive Prospects" was held on June 10, 2011 at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies in Arlington, Virginia.

Authors: John R Shook

The institutional review board is an impediment to human research: the result is more animal-based research

Biomedical research today can be generally classified as human-based or nonhuman animal-based, each with separate and distinct review boards that must approve research protocols. Researchers wishing to work wi...

Authors: Mark J Rice

Paula Modersohn-Becker, the challenges of pregnancy and the weight of tradition

Paula Modersohn-Becker, widely considered to have been one of the most important independent Expressionist painters of the early twentieth century, was thirty-one years old when she gave birth to her first chi...

Authors: Giorgina B Piccoli and Scott L Karakas

Dialectics of mindfulness: implications for western medicine

Mindfulness as a clinical and nonclinical intervention for a variety of symptoms has recently received a substantial amount of interest. Although the application of mindfulness appears straightforward and its ...

Authors: Sebastian Sauer, Siobhan Lynch, Harald Walach and Niko Kohls

Telemedicine in Primary Health: The Virtual Doctor Project Zambia

This paper is a commentary on a project application of telemedicine to alleviate primary health care problems in Lundazi district in the Eastern province of Zambia. The project dubbed 'The Virtual Doctor Proje...

Authors: Evans N Mupela, Paul Mustarde and Huw LC Jones

Should We Treat Depression with drugs or psychological interventions? A Reply to Ioannidis

We reply to the Ioannidis's paper "Effectiveness of antidepressants; an evidence based myth constructed from a thousand controlled trials." We disagree that antidepressants have no greater efficacy than placeb...

Authors: John M Davis, William J Giakas, Jie Qu, Pavan Prasad and Stefan Leucht

Generalized anxiety disorder and online intelligence: A phenomenological account of why worrying is unhelpful

Worrying is the central feature of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Many people worry from time to time, but in GAD the worrying is prolonged and difficult to control. Worrying is a specific way of coping w...

Authors: Gerben Meynen

Body Awareness: a phenomenological inquiry into the common ground of mind-body therapies

Enhancing body awareness has been described as a key element or a mechanism of action for therapeutic approaches often categorized as mind-body approaches, such as yoga, TaiChi, Body-Oriented Psychotherapy, Bo...

Authors: Wolf E Mehling, Judith Wrubel, Jennifer J Daubenmier, Cynthia J Price, Catherine E Kerr, Theresa Silow, Viranjini Gopisetty and Anita L Stewart

The Being of Leadership

The ethical foundation of the medical profession, which values service above reward and holds the doctor-patient relationship as inviolable, continues to be challenged by the commercialization of health care. ...

Authors: Wiley W Souba

The ethical and legal aspects of palliative sedation in severely brain-injured patients: a French perspective

To fulfill their crucial duty of relieving suffering in their patients, physicians may have to administer palliative sedation when they implement treatment-limitation decisions such as the withdrawal of life-s...

Authors: Antoine Baumann, Frédérique Claudot, Gérard Audibert, Paul-Michel Mertes and Louis Puybasset

Obsessionality & compulsivity: a phenomenology of obsessive-compulsive disorder

Progress in psychiatry depends on accurate definitions of disorders. As long as there are no known biologic markers available that are highly specific for a particular psychiatric disorder, clinical practice a...

Authors: Damiaan Denys

Intervention, integration and translation in obesity research: Genetic, developmental and metaorganismal approaches

Obesity is the focus of multiple lines of inquiry that have -- together and separately -- produced many deep insights into the physiology of weight gain and maintenance. We examine three such streams of resear...

Authors: Maureen A O'Malley and Karola Stotz

Defining mental disorder. Exploring the 'natural function' approach

Due to several socio-political factors, to many psychiatrists only a strictly objective definition of mental disorder, free of value components, seems really acceptable. In this paper, I will explore a variant...

Authors: Somogy Varga

Leach ScullyJackie, Baldwin-RagavenLaurel, Fitzpatrick Petya:Feminist Bioethics At the Center, On the Margins Baltimore, MD: The John Hopkins University Press 2010 Xiv307

The anthology, Feminist Bioethics, edited by Jackie Leach Scully, Laurel E. Baldwin-Ragaven, and Petya Fitzpatrick, examines how feminist bioethics theoretically and methodologically challenges mainstream bioethi...

Authors: Maureen Sander-Staudt

Respice...prospice: Philosophy, ethics and medical care- past, present, and future.

Authors: James Giordano

Foni phronimos - An interview with Edmund D. Pellegrino

Authors: James Giordano

No departure to "Pandora"? Using critical phenomenology to differentiate "naive" from "reflective" experience in psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine (A comment on Schwartz and Wiggins, 2010)

The mind-body problem lies at the heart of the clinical practice of both psychiatry and psychosomatic medicine. In their recent publication, Schwartz and Wiggins address the question of how to understand life ...

Authors: Jann E Schlimme, Catharina Bonnemann and Aaron L Mishara

Is the use of sentient animals in basic research justifiable?

Animals can be used in many ways in science and scientific research. Given that society values sentient animals and that basic research is not goal oriented, the question is raised: "Is the use of sentient ani...

Authors: Ray Greek and Jean Greek

Kafka, paranoic doubles and the brain: hypnagogic vs. hyper-reflexive models of disrupted self in neuropsychiatric disorders and anomalous conscious states

Kafka's writings are frequently interpreted as representing the historical period of modernism in which he was writing. Little attention has been paid, however, to the possibility that his writings may reflect...

Authors: Aaron L Mishara

Niall Shanks, C. Ray Greek Animal Models in the Light of Evolution Boca Raton: BrownWalker Press; 2009. 443 pages, ISBN-10: 1599425025 ISBN-13: 9781599425023

Animal Models in the Light of Evolution provides persuasive evidence that animal models should be used with great caution when applying the results to human diseases. Mice and other model animals are both simi...

Authors: Lewis Wolpert

How clinicians make (or avoid) moral judgments of patients: implications of the evidence for relationships and research

Physicians, nurses, and other clinicians readily acknowledge being troubled by encounters with patients who trigger moral judgments. For decades social scientists have noted that moral judgment of patients is ...

Authors: Terry E Hill

Pain Control in the African Context: the Ugandan introduction of affordable morphine to relieve suffering at the end of life

Dr Anne Merriman is the founder of Hospice Africa and Hospice Africa Uganda. She is presently Director of Policy and International Programmes. Here she tells the story of how HAU was founded. Dr Richard Hardin...

Authors: Anne Merriman and Richard Harding

The Infectious Diseases Society of America Lyme guidelines: a cautionary tale about the development of clinical practice guidelines

Flawed clinical practice guidelines may compromise patient care. Commercial conflicts of interest on panels that write treatment guidelines are particularly problematic, because panelists may have conflicting ...

Authors: Lorraine Johnson and Raphael B Stricker

Ambient Assistive Technologies (AAT): socio-technology as a powerful tool for facing the inevitable sociodemographic challenges?

Due to the socio-demographic change in most developed western countries, elderly populations have been continuously increasing. Therefore, preventive and assistive systems that allow elderly people to independ...

Authors: Astrid M Schülke, Herbert Plischke and Niko B Kohls

Should the NHS be privatized? Annual varsity medical debate - London, 22 January 2010

The Varsity Medical Debate, between Oxford and Cambridge Universities, brings together practitioners and the public, professors, pupils and members of the polis, to facilitate discussion about ethics and polic...

Authors: Myura Nagendran, Sanjay Budhdeo, Mahiben Maruthappu and Kapil Sugand

The ethics of everyday practice in primary medical care: responding to social health inequities

Social and structural inequities shape health and illness; they are an everyday presence within the doctor-patient encounter yet, there is limited ethical guidance on what individual physicians should do. This...

Authors: John S Furler and Victoria J Palmer

Construct representation and definitions in psychopathology: the case of delusion

Delusion is one of the most intriguing psychopathological phenomena and its conceptualization remains the subject of genuine debate. Claims that it is ill-defined, however, are typically grounded on essentiali...

Authors: Adriano CT Rodrigues and Claudio EM Banzato

A diagnosis of conflict: theoretical barriers to integration in mental health services & their philosophical undercurrents

This paper examines the philosophical substructure to the theoretical conflicts that permeate contemporary mental health care in the UK. Theoretical conflicts are treated here as those that arise among practit...

Authors: Nathan M Gerard

On the ontological assumptions of the medical model of psychiatry: philosophical considerations and pragmatic tasks

A common theme in the contemporary medical model of psychiatry is that pathophysiological processes are centrally involved in the explanation, evaluation, and treatment of mental illnesses. Implied in this per...

Authors: Tejas Patil and James Giordano

Psychosomatic medicine and the philosophy of life

Basing ourselves on the writings of Hans Jonas, we offer to psychosomatic medicine a philosophy of life that surmounts the mind-body dualism which has plagued Western thought since the origins of modern scienc...

Authors: Michael A Schwartz and Osborne P Wiggins

Principlism, medical individualism, and health promotion in resource-poor countries: can autonomy-based bioethics promote social justice and population health?

Through its adoption of the biomedical model of disease which promotes medical individualism and its reliance on the individual-based anthropology, mainstream bioethics has predominantly focused on respect for...

Authors: Jacquineau Azétsop and Stuart Rennie

The clinical investigator-subject relationship: a contextual approach

The nature of the relationship between a clinical investigator and a research subject has generated considerable debate because the investigator occupies two distinct roles: clinician and scientist. As a clini...

Authors: David B Resnik

Presumed consent for organ preservation in uncontrolled donation after cardiac death in the United States: a public policy with serious consequences

Organ donation after cessation of circulation and respiration, both controlled and uncontrolled, has been proposed by the Institute of Medicine as a way to increase opportunities for organ procurement. Despite...

Authors: Joseph L Verheijde, Mohamed Y Rady and Joan McGregor

Paranoid atmospheres: Psychiatric knowledge and delusional realities

In this paper I investigate the topic of paranoid atmospheres. This subject is especially of interest with respect to persons who are deluded, and also, I will demonstrate, sheds light upon the psychiatrist's ...

Authors: Jann E Schlimme

Time for a unified approach to medical ethics

A code of ethics is used by individuals to justify their actions within an environment. Medical professionals require a keen understanding of specific ethical codes due to the potential consequences of their a...

Authors: Shaheen E Lakhan, Elissa Hamlat, Turi McNamee and Cyndi Laird

Quo vadis? Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine - preserving the humanistic character of medicine in a biotechnological future

Authors: James Giordano

Healing relationships and the existential philosophy of Martin Buber

The dominant unspoken philosophical basis of medical care in the United States is a form of Cartesian reductionism that views the body as a machine and medical professionals as technicians whose job is to repa...

Authors: John G Scott, Rebecca G Scott, William L Miller, Kurt C Stange and Benjamin F Crabtree

Nosologomania: DSM & Karl Jaspers' Critique of Kraepelin

Emil Kraepelin's nosology has been reinvented, for better or worse. In the United States, the rise of the neo-Kraepelinian nosology of DSM-III resuscitated Kraepelin's work but also differed from many of his i...

Authors: S Nassir Ghaemi

Conference Report: The Nour Foundation Georgetown University & Blackfriars Hall, Oxford University Symposium Series Technology, Neuroscience & the Nature of Being: Considerations of Meaning, Morality and Transcendence Part I: The Paradox of Neurotechnology 8 May 2009

This reviews the first of a tripartite symposia series dealing with novel neuroscientific technologies, the nature of consciousness and being, and the questions that arise from such interactions. The event too...

Authors: Guillermo Palchik

Determining the status of non-transferred embryos in Ireland: a conspectus of case law and implications for clinical IVF practice

The development of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) as a treatment for human infertilty was among the most controversial medical achievements of the modern era. In Ireland, the fate and status of supranumary (non-tra...

Authors: Eric Scott Sills and Sarah Ellen Murphy

Ethical psychiatry in an uncertain world: conversations and parallel truths

Psychiatric practice is often faced with complex situations that seem to pose serious moral dilemmas for practitioners. Methods for solving these dilemmas have included the development of more objective rules ...

Authors: Alexander M Carson and Peter Lepping

For an indeterministic ethics. The emptiness of the rule in dubio pro vita and life cessation decisions

It is generally claimed that there exist exceptional circumstances when taking human life may be approved and when such actions may be justified on moral grounds. Precise guidelines in the medical field for ma...

Authors: Dragan Pavlovic, Christian Lehmann and Michael Wendt

Reflective thinking and medical students: some thoughtful distillations regarding John Dewey and Hannah Arendt

Reflective thought (critical thinking) is essential to the medical student who hopes to become an effective physician. John Dewey, one of America's foremost educators in the early twentieth century, revolution...

Authors: Thomas J Papadimos

The "spare parts person"? Conceptions of the human body and their implications for public attitudes towards organ donation and organ sale

The increasing debate on financial incentives for organ donation raises concerns about a "commodification of the human body". Philosophical-ethical stances on this development depend on assumptions concerning ...

Authors: Mark Schweda and Silke Schicktanz

Prolonging life and delaying death: The role of physicians in the context of limited intensive care resources

Critical care is in an emerging crisis of conflict between what individuals expect and the economic burden society and government are prepared to provide. The goal of critical care support is to prevent suffer...

Authors: Robert C McDermid and Sean M Bagshaw

Are animal models predictive for humans?

It is one of the central aims of the philosophy of science to elucidate the meanings of scientific terms and also to think critically about their application. The focus of this essay is the scientific term predic...

Authors: Niall Shanks, Ray Greek and Jean Greek

The end of the era of generosity? Global health amid economic crisis

In the past decade donor commitments to health have increased by 200 percent. Correspondingly, there has been a swell of new players in the global health landscape. The unprecedented, global response to a sing...

Authors: Kammerle Schneider and Laurie Garrett

Living apart together: reflections on bioethics, global inequality and social justice

Significant inequalities in health between and within countries have been measured over the past decades. Although these inequalities, as well as attempts to improve sub-standard health, raise profound issues ...

Authors: Stuart Rennie and Bavon Mupenda

The 'Brain Drain' of physicians: historical antecedents to an ethical debate, c. 1960–79

Many western industrialized countries are currently suffering from a crisis in health human resources, one that involves a debate over the recruitment and licensing of foreign-trained doctors and nurses. The i...

Authors: David Wright, Nathan Flis and Mona Gupta

The need to reform our assessment of evidence from clinical trials: A commentary

The ideology of evidence-base medicine (EBM) has dramatically altered the way we think, conceptualize, philosophize and practice medicine. One of its major pillars is the appraisal and classification of eviden...

Authors: Sean M Bagshaw and Rinaldo Bellomo