Thinking about risk : Can doctors and patients talk the same language?

Different mathematical expressions of risk are difficult enough for the doctor, but are likely to be harder for patients. Misselbrook and Armstrong showed that patients make very different choices about treatment depending on which of the above risk statistics they used as the basis of their judgement. Rather than empowering patients, such risk models can therefore make them yet more dependent on their doctors. Mathematical models are designed for the world of the doctor and do not fit easily with the world of the patient. So how can we proceed?

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New York besieged : 11 September and after.

Epidemiologists all over the world have been good enough to express their concerns and worries about how we, and other friends and colleagues in New York, fared in the terror provoked on 11 September. This annotation responds to the editors’ invitation that we convey something from our vantage point.We welcomed their interest. The experience is, so far, unique in history. Our account is personal, that of four individuals, all related (Sally married to Ezra, and Ezra born to Mervyn and Zena).

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Predicting medically unexplained physical symptoms and health care utilization : A symptom-perception approach.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES:

The present study investigated the contribution of demographic characteristics (age, gender, socioeconomic status [SES]) and symptom-perception variables to unexplained physical symptoms and health care utilization. In addition, the consequences of the use of four frequently applied symptom-detection methods for relations among study variables were examined.

METHOD:

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Belgian coca-cola-related outbreak: intoxication, mass sociogenic illness, or both?

Abstract

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Post-traumatic stress disorder.

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Post-traumatic stress disorder.

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Chronic fatigue and anxiety/depression: a twin study.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Up to three-quarters of patients with fatigue syndromes have comorbid mood or anxiety disorders, suggesting that chronic fatigue is a forme fruste of anxiety or depressive states.

AIMS:

To establish whether the association of chronic fatigue with psychological distress is causal or due to a common genetic or environmental factor.

METHOD:

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September 11: the response and role of public health.

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Bioterrorism : crime and opportunity.

Abstract

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The longitudinal course of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms among aging military veterans.

Abstract

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