Scientists target drugs that improve behaviour

[Ed Jewett]

It all depends on which 'doctor' you trust in......

"Life is short, the Art long, opportunity fleeting, judgement difficult, experience delusive."


One of the books that crossed my path while I was sans keyboard was "Hippocrates' Shadow": Secrets from the House of Medicine". See
http://www.amazon.com/Hippocrates-Shadow...1416551530

I bought the book because I have had a long-term interest in medicine, have known and communicated well with more than a few doctors, and know someone who is deeply involved in efforts to improve medical care. The book is written by an emergency physician, and I spent years working with a chapter-ful of those guys, as well as having had a carer in emergency medical services. "Jenny" writes about the book and say its title ought to be "Fixing Medicine": http://diabetesupdate.blogspot.com/2008/...hadow.html

"Dr. Newman shows that medical practice is riddled with many more deeply held beliefs that harm patients, beliefs based on findings published in journals fifty or sixty years ago which have been handed on from doctor to doctor as truth though they were based on flimsy or even made up evidence. The chapter "We're Missing the Meaning" explores the concept of placebo and shows how powerful the attitude communicated by a doctor can be in helping or hindering healing.... If you have any interest in understanding the way medicine is currently practiced, you should read the whole book. It will make you better understand why the care you get is so unsatisfying, and in addition it will make you realize that your doctor isn't much happier than you are at having to practice in the current environment."

I gave it to a friend of mine who is the Director of Policy for the second-highest rated health plan in America; she read it (I've only browsed it thus far), and asked me to order four copies of it to give to various and sundry people insight her circle of professional colleagues. I have created a little card that she can use as an inside transmittal note which reads:

[color="#0000FF"]"Medicine has one great advantage over other branches of knowledge:
the only criterion of truth in medicine is that it should work."[/color]

John Langdon Davies, in Man: Known and Unknown,

as cited in the conclusion by Janet Jones to The Spiritual Medicine of Tibet: Heal Your Spirit, Heal Yourself by Dr. Pema Dorjee, withJanet Jones and Terence Moore, Watkins Publishing, London, 2005.