Neurology for students

This book in neurology was prepared for students reading for the Doctor of Medicine in Psychiatry. It is also extremely useful for medical students, nurses and young doctors since it is written as an introduction to neurology providing a framework on which to build. Students should find the approach simple to follow with a slight emphasis on the borderland of psychiatry and neurology. Both neurological and psychiatric problems are very common, accounting for 10 percent and 40 percent respectively, of general practice consultations. This book will also serve as a supplement for the brief neurological and psychiatric attachments of students and interns (AU)

Clinical Research: Where is the "laboratory" and what are the methods? - [abstract]

Clinical research is obviously necessary if medical care for patients is to improve. Over the last several decades, however, there has been a tendency to marginalize this branch of science. The reasons for this trend are obvious enough - lack of scientific training of investigators, pressure of clinical responsibilities, substitution of product testing (eg drugs, devices) for sciences, etc - but the solution is not. Clinican scientist control two unique resources - access to patients and an understanding of clinical problems - that should translate into control, if not a monopoly, over the clinical research enterprise. Unfortunately, this resource if squandered. In this presentation, a perspective on clinical research at the present time, at least from the North American perspective, will be offered. It will be argued that medicine has responded very ineffectively to changes in the academic environment. As a result, clinicans are deeply confused about where the appropriate "laboratory" is situated and what constitutes the method of enquiry for clinical research. In conclusion, a view on what might constitute the elements of a programme to restore that balance will also be presented.(Au)

Medicine and its alternatives: health care priorities in the Caribbean

In the Caribbean as as in many other areas costly biomedical resources and personnel are limited, and more and more people are turning to alternative medicine and folk practitioners for health care. To meet the goal of providing health care for all, research on nonbiomedical therapies is needed, along with legal recognition of folk practitioners to establish standards of practice.(Au)

Challenges to orthodox medicine: self-help approaches in the USA

Argues that women, by choice or necessity are becoming more active participants in the protection of their own health. Through empowering methods of self-help women are breaking the conspiracy of silence about their health

Medical services in Jamaica, 1834-1850

The question of sanitation and health care was one which earned very little attention from the Jamaican medical profession as a whole and the Jamaican Assembly. The ex-slaves were expected, having become free citizens to consult physicians and provide for their families welfare. As it happened, the freed population moved away from the urban centres where their medical needs were supplied by men of their own colour. These, largely the 'hot-house' doctors of the previous era understood their maladies and sympathized with their superstitions. The settlements which the emancipated established were wrought with sanitation problems ranging from a lack of a domestic water supply to improper disposal of refuse. The Assembly paid little attention to the health needs of this group and accepted no responsibility for the living conditions of the populace. The physicians for their part, dismissed the ex-slaves as a group of dirty, ignorant and careless individuals who did not recognise their responsibility to the island to procreate and to extend their working lives for as long as possible. The Physicians, after stating that the blacks did not consult them, argued that as a group they did not wish to part with their money and as a consequence the island's death rate had increased dramatically. This assertion had no basis, in the absence of a registry of births and deaths, but was accepted as valid by the authorities. The fear of decreasing labour force, forced the Assembly to address the question of health care, and the Dispensaries scheme came into being. The scheme failed however, due to lack of support on the part of the blacks and a shortage of personnel. The economic distress following the Sugar Duties Act of 1846 pushed the health question in the background and no further steps were taken despite a House Committee report on the deplorable state of the public hospital in Kingston in 1846 and a Board of Health report on the poor sanitation of Kingston in 1848. The health issue was brought into full focus when cholera took its toll on the black population in 1850. The whites responded with characteristic alarm, at the loss of their labourers but did not improve living conditions on estates or move to rehouse residents of settlements in unsanitary areas. The Home Government gave some assistance to the island and advised that the Assembly provide better medical services and dismissed all claims for special consideration.(AU)