Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 112
Just when you thought your brain could unwind on a Friday, you realise that it would rather be challenged with some good old fashioned medical trivia…introducing Funtabulously Frivolous Friday Five 112
Question 1
How did Dr Joseph-Ignace Guillotin die?
+ Reveal the Funtabulous Answer
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Furunculosis
Not by his invention, contrary to folklore, but by an infected carbuncle on his shoulder.
Interestingly the first guillotine contraption was designed in Halifax, Yorkshire which was used as a deterrent for would be cl...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - August 14, 2015 Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Neil Long Tags: Frivolous Friday Five alexander fleming Altitude Catamenial pneumothorax Dr Joseph Ignace Guillotin guillotine hitler monge parkinsons penicillin Source Type: blogs
Futility in Chronic Anorexia Nervosa
Medical futility is usually discussed in the context of life-sustaining treatment in the ICU. But the new June 2015 issue 15(7) of American Journal of Bioethics addresses futility in another context.
There is one 10-page target article and six 2-page commentaries.
Futility in Chronic Anorexia Nervosa: A Concept Whose Time Has Not Yet ComeCynthia M. A. Geppert
Anorexia Nervosa, “Futility,” and Category ErrorsRonald W. Pies
The Futility of Arguing About Medical Futility in Anorexia Nervosa: The Question Is How Would You Handle Highly Specific Circumstances?Joel Yager
“Futility...
Source: blog.bioethics.net - July 12, 2015 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Thaddeus Mason Pope Tags: Health Care medical futility blog syndicated Source Type: blogs
Promoting Amphetamines for Over-Eating - What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
In this study, about 5% of patients given any dosage of Vyvanse had to discontinue its use because of adverse effects. 3/196 patients initially randomized to Vyvanse had serious adverse effects, and one patient died, apparently of an amphetamine overdose. Oddly, the article declared that the one death, due to methamphetamine overdose, was thought by a study investigator not to be related to treatment with another amphetamine, lisdexamfetamine. That makes little sense, given that in a randomized controlled trial, the presumption is that differences in groups given different treatments were caused by these ...
Source: Health Care Renewal - February 26, 2015 Category: Health Management Tags: clinical trials conflicts of interest deception evidence-based medicine FDA marketing Shire stealth marketing Source Type: blogs
FDA Device Guidance: General Wellness: Policy for Low Risk Devices
This article walks through the general wellness guidance, in which FDA provides many examples of devices they consider to be low risk general wellness products. The guidance, which spends a lot of time on general health and fitness mobile apps, makes clear FDA does not intend to regulate such products.
Products classified as “medical devices” either need to be approved by FDA through pre-market approval or show that they are substantially equivalent to an existing device. Both processes take time and resources, so avoiding the designation is in a company’s best interest. Thus, FDA’s guidance on whether a product is...
Source: Policy and Medicine - January 29, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
The Goal of Life
One of my colleagues told me once: "Sami, excuse my remark, but you don't know what you want." I didn't like to discuss that with him, but the bottom line is I think that nobody knows what s/he wants form life. I took the bus today who was there waiting for me? now you already know, I hope. A Virginia Woolf of a kind. And we started chatting. VW: So where are you going today?S: To the University to see whether I can change my place of working.VW: Soooo, that meeaanzzz, you know where you are going to?S: welllll, ... - I looked in her eyes and saw that mixture of cleverness and ridicule so I took a deep breath and...
Source: psychiatry for all - January 4, 2015 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Source Type: blogs
The difference between men and women
Should you be among the lost souls who watch television, you will have seen advertisements for Wendy's grease pits fine dining restaurants.If you are with me so far, you will recall that founder Dave Thomas used to be the commercial spokesperson. He'd appear in an apron avuncularly purveying his ground lips and anuses of played out milk cows, or whatever is in those gray squares. (I make no actual claims, having no actual knowledge.)To put it kindly, Dave was no poster boy for the healthful properties of his no-doubt yummy products. He was one of those guys who makes you wonder how a belt that goes around the equator can k...
Source: Stayin' Alive - December 3, 2014 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Hospital Weights Adjusted Downward After Thanksgiving, Scoring Patient Satisfaction Win!
Memphis, TN -- A nurse at Grover Hospital struck clinical gold Monday by recalibrating hospital scales back 10 pounds, 20 pounds, 40 pounds, even 100 pounds and more - in the weekend aftermath of Thursday's annual Thanksgiving Day bing - to try and win the third annual Most Improved Patient Satisfaction Scores Floor Contest.Customers admitted after the holiday feast will often complain to nurses they gained too much weight gorging on turkey and stuffing. So Brian Jamison, the good looking male nurse known hospital wide for his inappropriate comments, decided to take matters into his own hand...
Source: The Happy Hospitalist - December 1, 2014 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Authors: Tamer Mahrous Source Type: blogs
A patient’s experience with diagnostic overshadowing
I have been a victim of diagnostic overshadowing by a primary care physician. I’ve been dealing with major depressive disorder, recurrent, severe and anorexia for twenty-five years — practically my entire adult life. However, I work full-time and I’m a published writer. At the time I saw this PCP, I was on hefty doses of Cymbalta (an antidepressant) and Abilify (an antipsychotic which can also be used to boost the effects of an antidepressant).
Continue reading ...
Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - November 4, 2014 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Andrea Rosenhaft Tags: Patient Pain management Patients Primary care Source Type: blogs
Fright Week: The Stranger in the Mirror
In the mirror we see our physical selves as we truly are, even though the image might not live up to what we want, or what we once were. But we recognize the image as “self”. In rare instances, however, this reality breaks down.In Black Swan, Natalie Portman plays Nina Sayers, a ballerina who auditions for the lead in Swan Lake. The role requires her to dance the part of the innocent White Swan (for which she is well-suited), as well as her evil twin the Black Swan — which is initially outside the scope of her personality and technical abilities. Another dancer is favored for the role of the Black Swan. Nina's drive ...
Source: The Neurocritic - October 30, 2014 Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: The Neurocritic Source Type: blogs
Effects of Lifestyle or Effects of Aging?
There is a distinction to be drawn between primary and secondary aging, which at this time we might consider as the division between the things you can't yet do anything about on the one hand versus the things can you do something about on the other. Unfortunately the former are much more of a determinant of aging and age-related disease than the latter. Primary aging consists of damage-generating metabolic processes that we don't yet have the biotechnology to address, as described in the SENS view of aging. Secondary aging consists of the biochemical consequences of becoming fat and sedentary, or at least that is the bulk...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 15, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Are Vaccines Right for Your Child? Debunking the Myths of the DTaP Vaccine
Conclusion
As a journalist and a mother myself, I found Dr. Lewis’s paper to be poorly written, lacking in substance and containing very few credible references. If parents are given poor information and very few facts, how can they ever make an informed decision about vaccinations?
Parents are continually being lied to by the medical profession, the mainstream media, the pharmaceutical industry and world governments, and it needs to stop. How can we trust a person paid to vaccinate our children? Let’s face it – Dr. Karen Lewis is, after all, the Medical Director of the Arizona Department of Health Services. She is h...
Source: vactruth.com - August 17, 2014 Category: Allergy & Immunology Authors: Christina England Tags: Christina England Top Stories Dr. Karen Lewis DTaP vaccine dtp Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) truth about vaccines Source Type: blogs
Present Day
My daughter spent almost five months in the UCSD Adolescent Eating Disorder Treatment Program in 2012 and six weeks in their adult program in 2013, after a relapse.
She continues to check in with her (phenomenal) psychiatrist regularly. She has found art to be an important tool for her to maintain her recovery.
Recovery: A Magical Word
Kinsey’s been in recovery for 16 months. She’s completed three semesters of college in another state and is planning on a study abroad in Australia. Every day, either in person or on social media, I do what I will do for the rest of her life; scan her face for the softness that, for her,...
Source: Conversations with Dr Greene - July 25, 2014 Category: Pediatricians Authors: Jennifer Denise Ouellette Tags: Perspectives Eating Disorders Teens & Behavior Teens & Health Teens & Nutrition Source Type: blogs
FBT What?
Family Based Treatment (FBT) understands this truth: recovery from an eating disorder cannot be made without full weight restoration and ongoing full nutrition. There is another important acknowledgement FBT makes which conventional (and markedly less effective) treatments don’t: when the symptom of a disease is anosognosia (inability to recognize one is ill), waiting for the sufferer to choose to get help is a losing proposition.
Compare a 20% mortality rate for conventional treatment to 3% for adolescents treated with FBT. Food is medicine for these diseases. Just as as parents would insist on chemotherapy or insulin...
Source: Conversations with Dr Greene - July 25, 2014 Category: Pediatricians Authors: Jennifer Denise Ouellette Tags: Perspectives Eating Disorders Teens & Behavior Teens & Health Teens & Nutrition Source Type: blogs
Down the Rabbit Hole
I am fond of prefacing conversations about eating disorders with: “If, everything you know about eating disorders you learned from an ABC Afterschool Special or Lifetime TV movie, you don’t know anything.” A frightening aspect of this disease is that most people—including doctors and other clinicians—wrongly assume full authority on the topic.
Many people don’t remember that until Rain Man came out in 1988, society largely thought autism was caused by cold, unfeeling “refrigerator” mothers. Eating disorders need a blockbuster movie — if you’re a movie producer, call me!
Just How Thin Was She?
My dau...
Source: Conversations with Dr Greene - July 23, 2014 Category: Pediatricians Authors: Jennifer Denise Ouellette Tags: Perspectives Eating Behavior Eating Disorders Teens & Behavior Teens & Nutrition Source Type: blogs
When Choice Isn’t A Choice
Long before I knew the term “disordered eating,” I knew its environment. My stunningly beautiful mother maintained her perfectly-proportioned, svelte figure with Carnation Instant Breakfast, cigarettes for hunger control during the day and an enormous, home-cooked, delicious meat, potatoes, salad and vegetable dinner every night. Sweets and sugar were forbidden, but sour cream was encouraged—low-fat, of course. I was skinny, my sister was husky and food and weight were frequent topics of discussion. As an adult, I recognized this wasn’t healthy.
Purposeful Parenting
Because I lacked modeling to be the type of par...
Source: Conversations with Dr Greene - July 22, 2014 Category: Pediatricians Authors: Jennifer Denise Ouellette Tags: Perspectives Eating Behavior Eating Disorders Raising Girls Teen Girls Teens & Behavior Teens & Health Source Type: blogs
