Psychiatric Programs: Their Medical Integration

The basic premise that psychiatry and medicine are one and the same discipline is advanced. Patients present with symptoms: sometimes largely the result of structural change, sometimes largely the result of emotional perturbation, but most frequently a mixture of both. The physician can never do his job satisfactorily without attention to the emotional problems of his patient, which is essentially the subject matter of psychiatry. He must have adequate training during his medical school years in order to recognize and handle emotional problems. The psychiatrically oriented general practitioner and the psychiatrist, who live in the community, are most valuable mental health resources and must have treatment facilities in the general hospital. Furthermore, hospital and medical insurance plans must be devised that will not penalize either doctor or patient when mental illness is recognized and dealt with in the most appropriate manner.     

Spiritist Psychiatric Hospitals in Brazil: Integration of Conventional Psychiatric Treatment and Spiritual Complementary Therapy

In Brazil, during the XX century, dozens of Spiritist psychiatric hospitals emerged seeking to integrate conventional medical treatment with complementary spiritual therapy. This combined inpatient treatment is largely found in Brazil, where many psychiatric hospitals stem from the Spiritist movement. The present report describes the use of these spiritual practices, their operating structure, health professionals involved, modalities of care, and institutional difficulties in integrating spiritual practices with conventional treatment in six leading Brazilian Spiritist psychiatric hospitals. These hospitals combine conventional psychiatric treatment with voluntary-based spiritual approaches such as laying on of hands (“fluidotherapy”), lectures regarding spiritual and ethical issues, intercessory prayer, spirit release therapy (“disobsession”) and “fraternal dialogue”. The non-indoctrination and optional nature of these spiritual complementary therapies seem to increase acceptance among patients and their family members. In conclusion, the Spiritist psychiatric hospitals in Brazil have, for more than half a century, provided an integrative approach in the treatment of psychiatric disorders, associating conventional and spiritual treatments, more specifically Spiritist therapy. The lack of standardized treatment protocols and scientific studies remain a barrier to assessing the impact of this integrative approach on patients’ mental health, quality of life, adherence, and perceived quality of treatment.     

Psychiatric Morbidity and Referral on Two General Medical Wards

Psychiatric morbidity among 230 medical inpatients was determined by a two-stage screening procedure, using the General Health Questionnaire and Standardized Psychiatric Interview. Of these patients, 23% were considered psychiatrically ill, affective disorders being the commonest illnesses encountered; and 27 (12%) were psychiatrically referred. While referral was related to severity of psychiatric illness and previous psychiatric illness, the degree to which the psychiatric illness obtruded or created problems in management appeared more crucial in determining referral. In half of those with psychiatric illness the problems did not appear to have been detected or dealt with. It is suggested that medical clerking should routinely include questions about mood and psychological responses to illness.     

Glasgow Medical Women 1951-4: Their Contribution and Attitude to Medical Work

A questionary sent to 137 women who qualified in Glasgow during 1951–4 showed that of the 106 respondents 24% of the married women were unemployed and only 31% were working full-time. The married women had fewer qualifications than a matched group of male contemporaries, and fewer of those in hospital work were consultants. The married women in full-time work had fewer children and showed some differences in their background compared with those working part-time or unemployed. Most part-time workers were satisfied with their present posts and did not wish to work more.     

精神科医疗告知存在的问题及改进措施

医疗告知已成为当前医疗活动中的重要内容。由于精神疾病患者的特殊性,导致精神科医疗告知还存在许多未解的难题。分析精神科医疗告知存在的问题,探讨规范告知的内容、方式、流程,提出对策和改进措施,对临床工作具有一定的指导意义。     

蛋白质微阵列技术及其在医学领域中的应用

蛋白质微阵列是生物芯片的一种,其主要优势在于应用平面上的有序排列的许多管、腔(孔)或各自独立的点来进行样本检测,使大量样本的平行分析成为可能。应用此技术可同时分析诸多蛋白质的生物化学活性、蛋白质与蛋白质间、蛋白质与DNA间、蛋白质与RNA间,以及蛋白质与配体间的相互作用,从而在临床诊断、药物研究、环境监测、食品卫生等方面显示出其广阔的应用前景。     

蛋白质微技术及其在医学领域中的应用

蛋白质微阵列是生物芯片的一种,其主要优势在于应用平面上的有序排列的许多管、腔（孔）或各自独立的点来进行样本检测,使大量样本的平行分析成为可能。应用此技术可同时分析诸多蛋白质的生物化学活性、蛋白质与蛋白质间、蛋白质与DNA间、蛋白质与RNA间,以及蛋白质与配体间的相互作用,从而在临床诊断、药物研究、环境监测、食品卫生等方面显示出其广阔的应用前景。     

School Programs and Characteristics and Their Influence on Student BMI: Findings from Healthy Passages

Background

Little is known about the contribution of school contextual factors to individual student body mass index (BMI). We set out to determine if school characteristics/resources: (1) are associated with student BMI; (2) explain racial/ethnic disparities in student BMI; and (3) explain school-level differences in student BMI.

Methods

Using gender-stratified multi-level modeling strategies we examined the association of school characteristics/resources and individual BMI in 4,387 5^th graders in the Healthy Passages Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Additionally, we examined the association of race/ethnicity and individual BMI as well as the between-school variance in BMI before and after adding individual and school characteristics to test for attenuation.

Results

The school-level median household income, but not physical activity or nutrition resources, was inversely associated with female BMI (β = −0.12, CI: −0.21,−0.02). Neither school demographics nor physical activity/nutrition resources were predictive of individual BMI in males. In Black females, school characteristics attenuated the association of race/ethnicity and BMI. Individual student characteristics—not school characteristics/resources-reduced the between-school variation in BMI in males by nearly one-third and eliminated it in females.

Conclusions

In this cohort of 5^th graders, school SES was inversely associated with female BMI while school characteristics and resources largely explained Black/White disparities in female weight status. Between-school differences in average student weight status were largely explained by the composition of the student body not by school characteristics or programming.