Striving for Health Equity: The Importance of Social Determinants of Health and Ethical Considerations in Pandemic Preparedness Planning.

Since the WHO's "Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Plan" in 1999, pandemic preparedness plans at the international and national level have been constantly adapted with the common goal to respond early to outbreaks, identify risks, and outline promising interventions for pandemic containment. Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, public health experts have started to reflect on the extent to which previous preparations have been helpful as well as on the gaps in pandemic preparedness planning. In the present commentary, we advocate for the inclusion of social and ethical factors in future pandemic planning-factors that have been insufficiently considered so far, although social determinants of infection risk and infectious disease severity contribute to aggravated social inequalities in health.

Placing women in Cytogenetics: Lore Zech and the chromosome banding technique.

BACKGROUND: Scholars agree that Torbjörn Caspersson's lab at the Institute of Medical Cell Research and Genetics at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, played a key role in the first description of the so-called Q-banding technique. It laid the foundation for a new era of cytogenetic diagnostics and had a lasting impact in several areas of biology and medicine. METHODS: Based on a mixed-method approach, essential aspects of the history of human cytogenetics are considered via primary and secondary analysis of biographical interviews as well as the qualitative evaluation of bibliometrics. Drawing on interviews with colleagues of lab member Lore Zech (1923-2013) and contemporary publications, this paper illuminates the role of and contribution by Zech: To what extent is the discovery attached to her and what does her legacy look like today? RESULTS: The analysis of the contemporary witness interviews with colleagues, students and junior researchers shows that Lore Zech was a committed member of Caspersson's research group. In addition, memoirs by contemporary colleagues describe her outstanding skills in microscopy. The different sources paint a multifaceted picture. In addition to the historians' patterns of interpretation, different legacies can also be found within the peer group. CONCLUSIONS: We argue that Zech represent the type of scientist who, although her research was acknowledged with several prizes, so far has not been part of the canon of pioneers of international cytogenetics.

[Saints and urology : The right saint for every disease]. / Heilige und die Urologie : "Für jede Krankheit den richtigen Heiligen".

During Medieval and Renaissance times up to the 19th century hagiotherapy was a common part of many different health offerings in society. Within the field of urology, kidney stone disease and venereal (sexually transmitted) diseases were the favourite subjects. Even today, the names of St. Libory, St. Roche, St. Apollinaire and St. Dionysius are common within the culture of remembrance in Europe and the USA.

Masculinity norms and occupational role orientations in men treated for depression.

PURPOSE: A traditional male role orientation is considered to increase the risk of depression and preventing men from disclosing symptoms of mental illness and seeking professional help. Less is known about the variance of masculinity orientations in men already treated for depression and their role in the treatment process. In this study, patterns of masculinity norms and work role orientations will be identified among men treated for depression. Associations of these patterns with depressive symptoms, stigma and delay in professional help-seeking will be investigated. METHODS: In a cross-sectional study, male role orientations (MRNS), work-related attitudes (AVEM), symptoms of mental disorders (PHQ), and attitudes related to stigma of mental illness (DSS) were assessed by standardized methods in a sample of 250 men treated for depression in general medical, psychiatric and psychotherapeutic services. Data were analyzed by means of latent profile analysis (LPA), by multinomial and linear regression models, and by path analysis. RESULTS: The results of LPA revealed three latent classes of men treated for depression. Men assigned to class one reported a less traditional male role orientation, low professional ambitions and low coping capacities; men assigned to class two reported a traditional masculinity orientation, high professional ambitions but low coping capacities; men assigned to class three reported less traditional masculinity tended orientations, medium professional ambitions and high coping capacities. Men assigned to classes one and two to have more stigmatizing attitudes, longer periods of untreated illness and more severe symptoms of mental disorders, in comparison to men assigned to class three. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, this study reveals that traditional masculinity norms and work-role orientations in men treated for depression are associated with a worse mental health status. Our study results also suggest that a slackening of traditional masculinity norms is associated with improved psychological well-being if it does not coincide with a complete distancing from professional ambitions and a lack of ability to cope with professional stress.

[The Dawn of Modernity: Giovanni Boccaccio's "The Decameron" and the Tradition of Genetic Understanding]. / Die Dämmerung der Neuzeit: Giovanni Boccaccios "Das Dekameron" und die Tradition des genetischen Verstehens.

"The Decameron" by Giovanni Boccaccio is a work which stands between the Middle Ages and Modernity. There are theories which postulate that concepts of identity and individuality, which arose with the dawn of Modernity, have an influence on mental illness. We chose a hermeneutic approach towards "The Decameron" to analyse the depiction of a changing society, of love, mental suffering and the role of therapeutic interventions. We conclude that Boccaccio showed an interest in intrapsychic mechanisms, an idea pertaining to Modernity, and discuss this idea in light of today's psychiatry and Karl Jaspers' concept of "genetic understanding".

[Sociology as a Major Factor for the Psychiatrie-Enquete in the Federal Republic of Germany - Results from Expert Interviews and Document Analyses]. / Soziologie als Impuls für die Psychiatrie-Enquete in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland?

OBJECTIVE: This paper examines the influence of sociology as a discipline on the Psychiatrie-Enquete by analysing interviews with expert (psychiatrist, psychologist, sociologist etc.) witnesses of the Enquete process and by analysing pertinent documents. METHODS: 24 interviews were conducted and analysed using qualitative secondary analysis. RESULTS: Sociological texts and research results influenced the professional development of psychiatrists at the time. Cross-talk between psychiatry and sociology developed through seminal sociological analyses of psychiatric institutions and the interest taken in medical institutions in a number of sociological texts. Inter-disciplinary joint studies (of sociologists and psychiatrists) affected the research interest and professional behaviour of psychiatrists involved in the process on the way to the Psychiatrie-Enquete. CONCLUSION: Tenacity of psychiatrists' systems of opinion was dissolved by impulses from the sociological thought community. The forms of contact between the psychiatric and the sociological thought collective which we could reconstruct are an example of the evolution of knowledge and practice through transdisciplinary communication.

The Impact of Dealing with the Late Effects of National Socialist Terror on West German Psychiatric Care.

Health damages and the late effects of NS trauma were largely ignored in German-speaking countries. This paper describes how dealing with the late effects of Nazi terror influenced post-war psychiatry in West Germany and thus the development of the psychiatric reform. As part of a greater overview study of the impulses and framework conditions of the reform-orientated development of post-war psychiatry in West Germany, this analysis is based on a thorough literary and documentary analysis. The sources show that publications by Helmut Paul and Herberg [81] as well as Baeyer et al. [12] can be considered as remarkable milestones. The awareness of psychological late effects of NS persecution was only reluctantly taken up by the scientific community. Nevertheless, this discussion was an essential component of the reform-orientated psychiatry in West Germany in the late 1960s to 1970s.

[Psychoanalysis and Psychiatrie-Enquete: expert interviews and document analysis]. / Psychoanalyse und Psychiatrie-Enquete: Zeitzeugengespräche und Akten.

Background The purpose of this paper is to analyse the perception of the role of psychoanalysis and psychoanalysts in the coming about of the Psychiatrie-Enquete in the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). Methods We performed a qualitative content analysis of expert interviews with persons involved in the Enquete (or witnessing the events as mental health professionals active at the time), a selective literature review and an analysis of documents on the Enquete process. Results Expert interviews, relevant literature and documents point to a role of psychoanalysis in the Enquete process. Psychoanalysts were considered to have been effective in the run-up to the Enquete and the work of the commission. Conclusion Psychoanalysis and a small number of psychoanalysts were perceived as being relevant in the overall process of the Psychiatrie-Enquete in West Germany.

[Impact of Anthropologic Psychiatry on Psychiatrie-Enquete and Psychiatric Reform in West Germany]. / Die Rolle der anthropologischen Psychiatrie in der Vorbereitungszeit der Psychiatrie-Enquete und Psychiatriereform in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland.

Objectives Analysis of the perception of effects of anthropological psychiatry on the Psychiatrie-Enquete and psychiatric reform in the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). Methods Qualitative content analysis of expert interviews and systematic literature search. Results Literary sources and expert interviews point to the impact of the anthropologic concept on discourse on and approach to those suffering from mental illness. The attention focused on the visualisation of material-social and subjective living conditions of persons with mental illness. Reform approaches of anthropological psychiatrists were perceived as a basis for the development of social psychiatry. Academic departments of psychiatry in Frankfurt (Zutt, Kulenkampff) and Heidelberg (von Baeyer, Kisker, Häfner) were considered important centres of innovation and reform. Conclusion The thinking of phenomenological-anthropological psychiatry was understood as a facilitator of the Psychiatrie-Enquete and psychiatric reform in West Germany.

[The I.G. Farben laboratory at the Günzburg mental hospital. Epilepsy research during the NS-regime and the postwar period]. / Das Laboratorium der I.G. Farben an der Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Günzburg. Epilepsieforschung in der NS-Zeit und den Nachkriegsjahren.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the activities of the I.G. Farben laboratory at the former "Heil- und Pflegeanstalt" Günzburg. This laboratory was established to test the newly developed epilepsy drug "Citrullamon" and its derivatives. Specifically, the type and manner of the various experiments were examined to determine whether the suspicions of unethical human experimentation could be identified. The commercial and medical activities between I.G. Farben and the Heil- und Pflegeanstalt, including the specific roles of the senior physician Wilhelm Leinisch and the I.G. Farben chemist Arno Grosse, are reviewed.