A total of70 children aged 6 to 15 years with rheumatic fever and completed in-hospital data were reviewed from 19XX to 1993. In 5X.6% of patients this was the first attack of disease, while in 41.4'10 the episode represented a recurrence. Noncompliance of antimicrobial prophylaxis was noted in all of the subjects with recurrences. 61.4% of cases gave a previous history of sore throat, and ...

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) occurs in 12-25% of survivors of acute life-threatening medical events such as heart attack, stroke, and cancer, and is associated with recurrence of cardiac events and mortality in heart attack survivors. This article reviews the current state of knowledge about PTSD after such events, and proposes an Enduring Somatic Threat (EST) model of PTSD due to acute...

BACKGROUND Cardiovascular disease is often studied through patient self-report and administrative data. However, these 2 sources provide different information, and few studies have compared them. METHODS AND RESULTS We compared data from a longitudinal, nationally representative survey of older Americans with matched Medicare claims. Self-reported heart attack in the previous 2 years was comp...

BACKGROUND There have been many reports of the adverse psychological effects of screening. Here we discuss the results of a randomized controlled study--one of the first to address this issue. AIM To determine the extent to which participation in a population-based intervention programme that aims to reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases raises concerns about health, or undermines a beli...