Articles

Promoting social responsibility amongst health care users: medical tourists’ perspectives on an information sheet regarding ethical concerns in medical tourism

Medical tourists, persons that travel across international borders with the intention to access non-emergency medical care, may not be adequately informed of safety and ethical concerns related to the practice...

Authors: Krystyna Adams, Jeremy Snyder, Valorie A Crooks and Rory Johnston

The place of words and numbers in psychiatric research

In recent decades, there has been widespread debate in the human and social sciences regarding the compatibility and the relative merits of quantitative and qualitative approaches in research. In psychiatry, d...

Authors: Bruno Falissard, Anne Révah, Suzanne Yang and Anne Fagot-Largeault

The autism puzzle: challenging a mechanistic model on conceptual and historical grounds

Although clinicians and researchers working in the field of autism are generally not concerned with philosophical categories of kinds, a model for understanding the nature of autism is important for guiding re...

Authors: Berend Verhoeff

Access to nutritious food, socioeconomic individualism and public health ethics in the USA: a common good approach

Good nutrition plays an important role in the optimal growth, development, health and well-being of individuals in all stages of life. Healthy eating can reduce the risk of chronic diseases, such as heart dise...

Authors: Jacquineau Azétsop and Tisha R Joy

Neuroethics, confidentiality, and a cultural imperative in early onset Alzheimer disease: a case study with a First Nation population

The meaningful consideration of cultural practices, values and beliefs is a necessary component in the effective translation of advancements in neuroscience to clinical practice and public discourse. Society’s...

Authors: Shaun Stevenson, B Lynn Beattie, Richard Vedan, Emily Dwosh, Lindsey Bruce and Judy Illes

Is acting on delusions autonomous?

In this paper the question of autonomy in delusional disorders is investigated using a phenomenological approach. I refer to the distinction between freedom of intentional action, and freedom of the will, and ...

Authors: Jann E Schlimme

The moral psychology of rationing among physicians: the role of harm and fairness intuitions in physician objections to cost-effectiveness and cost-containment

Physicians vary in their moral judgments about health care costs. Social intuitionism posits that moral judgments arise from gut instincts, called “moral foundations.” The objective of this study was to determ...

Authors: Ryan M Antiel, Farr A Curlin, Katherine M James and Jon C Tilburt

Engaging the normative question in the H5N1 avian influenza mutation experiments

In recent time there has been ample discussion concerning censorship of research conducted in two labs involved in avian influenza virus research. Much of the debate has centered on the question whether the me...

Authors: Norman K Swazo

At the borders of medical reasoning: aetiological and ontological challenges of medically unexplained symptoms

Medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) remain recalcitrant to the medical profession, proving less suitable for homogenic treatment with respect to their aetiology, taxonomy and diagnosis. While the majority of ...

Authors: Thor Eirik Eriksen, Roger Kerry, Stephen Mumford, Svein Anders Noer Lie and Rani Lill Anjum

An ethnomethodological approach to examine exploitation in the context of capacity, trust and experience of commercial surrogacy in India

The socio-ethical concerns regarding exploitation in commercial surrogacy are premised on asymmetric vulnerability and the commercialization of women’s reproductive capacity to suit individualistic motives. In...

Authors: Sheela Saravanan

Honeymoon, medical treatment or big business? An analysis of the meanings of the term “reproductive tourism” in German and Israeli public media discourses

Infertile couples that travel to another country for reproductive treatment do not refer to themselves as “reproductive tourists”. They might even be offended by this term. “Tourism” is a metaphor with hidden ...

Authors: Sharon Bassan and Merle A Michaelsen

Access to antiretroviral treatment, issues of well-being and public health governance in Chad: what justifies the limited success of the universal access policy?

Universal access to antiretroviral treatment (ART) in Chad was officially declared in December 2006. This presidential initiative was and is still funded 100% by the country’s budget and external donors’ finan...

Authors: Jacquineau Azétsop and Blondin A Diop

An extrapolation of Foucault’s Technologies of the Self to effect positive transformation in the intensivist as teacher and mentor

In critical care medicine, teaching and mentoring practices are extremely important in regard to attracting and retaining young trainees and faculty in this important subspecialty that has a scarcity of needed...

Authors: Thomas J Papadimos, Joanna E Manos and Stuart J Murray

The WHO simulation initiative: improving global health partnerships

Authors: Joseph R Fitchett, Paul G Reidy, Elizabeth J Anderson, Sebastien Forte and Kenrry Chiu

Culture, salience, and psychiatric diagnosis: exploring the concept of cultural congruence & its practical application

Cultural congruence is the idea that to the extent a belief or experience is culturally shared it is not to feature in a diagnostic judgement, irrespective of its resemblance to psychiatric pathology. This res...

Authors: Mohammed Abouelleil Rashed

Rethinking psychiatry with OMICS science in the age of personalized P5 medicine: ready for psychiatome?

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is universally acknowledged as the prominent reference textbook for the diagnosis and assessment of psychiatric diseases. However, since the publ...

Authors: Nicola Luigi Bragazzi

Cardiovascular medicine at face value: a qualitative pilot study on clinical axiology

Cardiology is characterized by its state-of-the-art biomedical technology and the predominance of Evidence-Based Medicine. This predominance makes it difficult for healthcare professionals to deal with the eth...

Authors: Adalberto de Hoyos, Rodrigo Nava-Diosdado, Jorge Mendez, Sergio Ricco, Ana Serrano, Carmen Flores Cisneros, Carlos Macías-Ojeda, Héctor Cisneros, David Bialostozky, Nelly Altamirano-Bustamante and Myriam M Altamirano-Bustamante

“Advice to the medical students in my service”: the rediscovery of a golden book by Jean Hamburger, father of nephrology and of medical humanities

Jean Hamburger (1909–1992) is considered the founder of the concept of medical intensive care (réanimation médicale) and the first to propose the name Nephrology for the branch of medicine dealing with kidney dis...

Authors: Piccoli Giorgina Barbara

Should trainee doctors use the developing world to gain clinical experience? The annual Varsity Medical Debate – London, Friday 20^th January, 2012

The 2012 Varsity Medical Debate between Oxford University and Cambridge University provided a stage for representatives from these famous institutions to debate the motion “This house believes that trainee doc...

Authors: Barnabas J Gilbert, Calum Miller, Fenella Corrick and Robert A Watson

The six most essential questions in psychiatric diagnosis: a pluralogue. Part 4: general conclusion

In the conclusion to this multi-part article I first review the discussions carried out around the six essential questions in psychiatric diagnosis – the position taken by Allen Frances on each question, the c...

Authors: James Phillips, Allen Frances, Michael A Cerullo, John Chardavoyne, Hannah S Decker, Michael B First, Nassir Ghaemi, Gary Greenberg, Andrew C Hinderliter, Warren A Kinghorn, Steven G LoBello, Elliott B Martin, Aaron L Mishara, Joel Paris, Joseph M Pierre, Ronald W Pies…

The absence of cruelty is not the presence of humanness: physicians and the death penalty in the United States

The death penalty by lethal injection is a legal punishment in the United States. Sodium Thiopental, once used in the death penalty cocktail, is no longer available for use in the United States as a consequenc...

Authors: Joel B Zivot

The culture of care within psychiatric services: tackling inequalities and improving clinical and organisational capabilities

Cultural Consultation is a clinical process that emerged from anthropological critiques of mental healthcare. It includes attention to therapeutic communication, research observations and research methods that...

Authors: Micol Ascoli, Andrea Palinski, John Arianda Owiti, Bertine De Jongh and Kamaldeep S Bhui

The right to practice medicine without repercussions: ethical issues in times of political strife

This commentary examines the incursion on the neutrality of medical personnel now taking place as part of the human rights crises in Bahrain and Syria, and the ethical dilemmas which these incursions place not...

Authors: Leith Hathout

Engaging with research ethics in central Francophone Africa: reflections on a workshop about ancillary care

Research ethics is predominantly taught and practiced in Anglophone countries, particularly those in North America and Western Europe. Initiatives to build research ethics capacity in developing countries must...

Authors: Tomi Tshikala, Bavon Mupenda, Pierre Dimany, Aime Malonga, Vicky Ilunga and Stuart Rennie

The six most essential questions in psychiatric diagnosis: A pluralogue part 2: Issues of conservatism and pragmatism in psychiatric diagnosis

In face of the multiple controversies surrounding the DSM process in general and the development of DSM-5 in particular, we have organized a discussion around what we consider six essential questions in furthe...

Authors: James Phillips, Allen Frances, Michael A Cerullo, John Chardavoyne, Hannah S Decker, Michael B First, Nassir Ghaemi, Gary Greenberg, Andrew C Hinderliter, Warren A Kinghorn, Steven G LoBello, Elliott B Martin, Aaron L Mishara, Joel Paris, Joseph M Pierre, Ronald W Pies…

The six most essential questions in psychiatric diagnosis: a pluralogue part 3: issues of utility and alternative approaches in psychiatric diagnosis

In face of the multiple controversies surrounding the DSM process in general and the development of DSM-5 in particular, we have organized a discussion around what we consider six essential questions in furthe...

Authors: James Phillips, Allen Frances, Michael A Cerullo, John Chardavoyne, Hannah S Decker, Michael B First, Nassir Ghaemi, Gary Greenberg, Andrew C Hinderliter, Warren A Kinghorn, Steven G LoBello, Elliott B Martin, Aaron L Mishara, Joel Paris, Joseph M Pierre, Ronald W Pies…

Forms of benefit sharing in global health research undertaken in resource poor settings: a qualitative study of stakeholders' views in Kenya

Increase in global health research undertaken in resource poor settings in the last decade though a positive development has raised ethical concerns relating to potential for exploitation. Some of the suggeste...

Authors: Geoffrey M Lairumbi, Michael Parker, Raymond Fitzpatrick and Michael C English

Recognition rights, mental health consumers and reconstructive cultural semantics

Those in mental health-related consumer movements have made clear their demands for humane treatment and basic civil rights, an end to stigma and discrimination, and a chance to participate in their own recove...

Authors: Jennifer H Radden

Psychopharmacological enhancement: a conceptual framework

The availability of a range of new psychotropic agents raises the possibility that these will be used for enhancement purposes (smart pills, happy pills, and pep pills). The enhancement debate soon raises ques...

Authors: Dan J Stein

The removal of pluto from the class of planets and homosexuality from the class of psychiatric disorders: a comparison

We compare astronomers' removal of Pluto from the listing of planets and psychiatrists' removal of homosexuality from the listing of mental disorders. Although the political maneuverings that emerged in both c...

Authors: Peter Zachar and Kenneth S Kendler

The six most essential questions in psychiatric diagnosis: a pluralogue part 1: conceptual and definitional issues in psychiatric diagnosis

In face of the multiple controversies surrounding the DSM process in general and the development of DSM-5 in particular, we have organized a discussion around what we consider six essential questions in furthe...

Authors: James Phillips, Allen Frances, Michael A Cerullo, John Chardavoyne, Hannah S Decker, Michael B First, Nassir Ghaemi, Gary Greenberg, Andrew C Hinderliter, Warren A Kinghorn, Steven G LoBello, Elliott B Martin, Aaron L Mishara, Joel Paris, Joseph M Pierre, Ronald W Pies…

A brief historicity of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: Issues and implications for the future of psychiatric canon and practice

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of the American Psychiatric Association, currently in its fourth edition and considered the reference for the characterization and diagnosis of mental disorders, has un...

Authors: Shadia Kawa and James Giordano

Working towards a new psychiatry - neuroscience, technology and the DSM-5

This Editorial introduces the thematic series on 'Toward a New Psychiatry: Philosophical and Ethical Issues in Classification, Diagnosis and Care'

Authors: Sabina Alam, Jigisha Patel and James Giordano

Donation after cardiocirculatory death: a call for a moratorium pending full public disclosure and fully informed consent

Many believe that the ethical problems of donation after cardiocirculatory death (DCD) have been "worked out" and that it is unclear why DCD should be resisted. In this paper we will argue that DCD donors may ...

Authors: Ari R Joffe, Joe Carcillo, Natalie Anton, Allan deCaen, Yong Y Han, Michael J Bell, Frank A Maffei, John Sullivan, James Thomas and Gonzalo Garcia-Guerra

Epistemological and ethical assessment of obesity bias in industrialized countries

Bernard Lonergan's cognitive theory challenges us to raise questions about both the cognitive process through which obesity is perceived as a behaviour change issue and the objectivity of such a moral judgment...

Authors: Jacquineau Azétsop and Tisha R Joy

Accountability and pediatric physician-researchers: are theoretical models compatible with Canadian lived experience?

Physician-researchers are bound by professional obligations stemming from both the role of the physician and the role of the researcher. Currently, the dominant models for understanding the relationship betwee...

Authors: Christine Czoli, Michael Da Silva, Randi Zlotnik Shaul, Lori d'Agincourt-Canning, Christy Simpson, Katherine Boydell, Natalie Rashkovan and Sharon Vanin

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

Should patents for antiretrovirals be waived in the developing world? Annual varsity medical debate - London, 21 January 2011

The 2011 Varsity Medical Debate, between Oxford and Cambridge Universities, brought students and faculty together to discuss the waiving of patents for antiretroviral therapies in the developing world. With an...

Authors: Fenella Corrick, Robert Watson and Sanjay Budhdeo

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