In a popular sense, Jehovah's Witnesses (JW) have their creeds, one of which is refusal of blood transfusion. Such refusal may impinge on their proper management, especially in critical situations. We present a case of successful bloodless multimodality therapy, which was performed for a JW. The patient was a 49-year-old woman and JW who had general weakness 7 days before admission. She was dia...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of an intervention targeting parental behavior on stool toileting refusal. METHODS This study population comprised 406 children aged 17 through 19 months from a single suburban private practice. Children were randomly assigned to receive 1 of 2 written toilet-training instructions. Both groups were advised to use a child-oriented approach to toilet training. I...

OBJECTIVE To validate a brief measure of vaccination confidence using a large, nationally representative sample of parents. METHODS We analyzed weighted data from 9018 parents who completed the 2010 National Immunization Survey-Teen, an annual, population-based telephone survey. Parents reported on the immunization history of a 13- to 17-year-old child in their households for vaccines includi...

Aim:To evaluate the safety and efficacy of low-dose doxorubicin and 5FU with best supportive care compared to best supportive care alone for patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. Patients and methods: Atotal of 60 patients (49 male and 11 females) with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma were enrolled. All patients were randomly divided into two groups. Treatment group: patients receiv...

The present study investigated the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy in youth (N = 27) diagnosed with a principal anxiety disorder and school refusal (SR; denial to attend school or difficulty remaining in school). Scant research examines the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy for treatmentseeking youth with a primary anxiety disorder and comorbid SR. Effects for youth wh...

In the case of Ms B, the High Court ruled that as Ms B was a competent adult patient, her doctors acted unlawfully in overriding her refusal of life-preserving ventilation. This commentary considers whether this case supports the proposition that in English law the right to refuse treatment extends even to refusals which are clearly suicidal.

Beta-agonist treatment during pregnancy may unmask the diagnosis of long QT syndrome. The QT prolongation can result in functional AV block. A history of seizure and/or sudden death in a family member should raise suspicion of ventricular tachycardia. More than one mutation may coexist. Refusal of beta-blocker therapy complicates risk stratification.

Preliminary findings on the effects of the Massachusetts ruling in Rogers v. Commissioner, an important right to refuse treatment case, are compared with models in other jurisdictions. In sum, few cases are reviewed; in almost all reviewed, the court overrides the patients' refusal. The case raises troubling implications about due process and quality of care.