Beyond Boundaries of Biomedicine: Pragmatic Perspectives on Health and DiseaseCultural forces shape much of medicine including psychiatry, and medicine shapes much of our culture. Medicine provides us with beneficial treatments of disease, but it also causes harm, increasingly so in the form of overmedication enhanced by the pharmaceutical industry. The book explores boundaries of medicine and psychiatry in a cultural setting by building bridges between unconnected literatures. Boundaries have to be redrawn since effects of the environment, biological, social and political, on health and disease are undervalued. Potential beneficial effects of diet therapies are a recurrent theme throughout the text, with particular emphasis on omega-3 fatty acids. Deficiencies of these acids in common diets may contribute to many chronic diseases and psychiatric disorders. The book uncovers limitations of evidence-based medicine, which fosters a restrictive view of health and disease. Case studies include: the biology of migraine; limitations of biological psychiatry; conventional versus alternative medicine; science, religion and near-death experiences. |
Contents
| 12 | |
to Chapter 1 Genetics and Philosophy of Biology | 21 |
The Spectrum of Diseases | 29 |
Drugs Psychotherapies and Placebos | 55 |
4 | 61 |
1 | 69 |
Conclusions | 87 |
Fatty Acids Health and Disease | 119 |
Qualifying Quantitative Methods | 153 |
Thought for Food in Psychiatry | 165 |
Conventional Medicine and CAM | 183 |
Medicine and Religion | 203 |
Afterthoughts | 221 |
| 273 | |
| 281 | |
Drugs Versus Diets | 135 |
Common terms and phrases
abnormalities alternative medicine analysis antacids antibiotics antipsychotics approach argue associated autoimmune bacterium biological psychiatry biomedical biomedicine blood Boyle brain cancer catatonia causal cause Chapter cholesterol chronic classification clinical common comorbidity concerning Considering conventional medicine Davidoff depression diet dietary disciplines disregarded drug treatments eicosapentaenoic acid environmental evidence Evidence-Based Medicine evolutionary example existing experiences factors fibromyalgia fish oil functional gastric ulcers genes genetic headache health and disease Healy Helicobacter pylori Horrobin idem immune system important infection journal literature malaria medical professionals mental illnesses methodological migraine muscle diseases NDES NSAIDs nutrition omega-3 deficiencies omega-3 fatty acids omega-3 PUFAs omeprazole overmedication particular patients persons pharmaceutical industry phenomena placebo polyunsaturated fatty acids problem processes psychiatric disorders psychological psychosocial psychotherapy randomised controlled trials represent rheumatoid arthritis role schizophrenia scientific Section side effects significant Simopoulos situation Steen studies supplements symptoms syndrome theories therapies vasopressin
Popular passages
Page 3 - Given the complex nature of medical practice and the multitude of interventions that each patient receives, a high error rate is perhaps not surprising.
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