Mother Nature is an exceedingly exacting old lady. She guards her treasures well and does not yield them on casual inquiry. To be sure, she has spread the stuff and substance of the Universe before everyone so that it might be described and classified. For generations men have eagerly approached this monumental job until at last there is available a fairly satisfactory account of the structure ...

The patient had only minor shortness of breath upon climbing two flights of stairs, despite a left ventricular ejection fraction of 30%. He was stable and doing well on digoxin, diuretics, beta blockers and an angiotensinconverting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor. However, a troublesome dry cough was becoming intolerable to the patient. After discussion with him, we elected to consider a trial of an ang...

From its origins in the 1990s, the qualitative health research metasynthesis project represented a methodological maneuver to capitalize on a growing investment in qualitatively derived study reports to create an interactive dialogue among them that would surface expanded insights about complex human phenomena. However, newer forms positioning themselves as qualitative metasynthesis but represe...

Melatonin madness is everywhere! The media attention that melatonin has received recently is truly remarkable and has elevated the hormone to cult status. Is all this excitement really justified, or is it just hype? What does melatonin actually do? Does it signal through specific receptors like other hormones? What is its true therapeutic potential? This minireview addresses these questions and...

This article compares the representations of jealousy in popular culture, medical and legal literature, and in the trials and diagnoses of men who murdered or attempted to murder their wives or sweethearts before being found insane and committed into Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum between 1864 and 1900. It is shown that jealousy was entrenched in Victorian culture, but marginalised in medica...

UNLABELLED Myxoedema madness was first described as a consequence of severe hypothyroidism in 1949. Most cases were secondary to long-standing untreated primary hypothyroidism. We present the first reported case of iatrogenic myxoedema madness following radioactive iodine ablation for Graves' disease, with a second concurrent diagnosis of primary hyperaldosteronism. A 29-year-old woman presente...

In this commentary, we respond to Atwood’s (2012) article, “Psychotherapy as a Human Science: Clinical Case Studies Exploring the Abyss of Madness," by highlighting some of the theoretical ideals that guide Atwood’s writing and his therapy work. In particular, we consider how these case studies fit into the larger paradigm of humanistic psychology, and how this perspective informed Atwood’s wor...

Mediawatch’s review [1] of coverage of the relationship between bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or ‘mad cow disease’) and human Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) coincided with disclosure of 10 new, suspicious CJD cases in the UK. The people affected were much younger than normal for CJD and had significantly different pathology. The UK Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC) ad...