Philosophy of medicine

The following article presents preliminary reflections on a processual theory of health and disease. It does this by steering the discussion more toward an ontology of organisms rather than conceptual analysis of the semantic content of the terms "health" and "disease." In the first section, four meta-theoretical assumptions of the traditional debate are identified and alternative approaches to the problems are presented. Afterwards, the view that health and disease are constituted by a dynamic relation between demands imposed on an organism and individual presuppositions for adequate response is developed...

Meteorology is not one of the most discussed topics in Paracelsus studies, although it is closely linked to both Paracelsus' medicine and cosmology. Furthermore, it appears to be at the very core of Paracelsus' famous matter theory of three chymical principles, mercury, sulphur and salt, known as the tria prima . By discussing prominent examples of Paracelsus' explanations on how the tria prima operate within the stars, this article shows how the Swiss physician conceived meteorology within his own body of knowledge, obviously constructed in opposition to the Aristotelian-scholastic tradition, how he based it on a peculiar interpretation of the Biblical creation story, and made it the proper laboratory of his chymical matter theory, applying it first systematically to the field of natural philosophy, especially to celestial phenomena, even before using it for his medical theory in his later writings...

INTRODUCTION: The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) approved the first pain medicine fellowship programs over three decades ago, designed around a pharmacological philosophy. Following that, there has been a rise in the transition of pain medicine education toward a multidisciplinary interventional model based on a tremendous surge of contemporaneous literature in these areas. This trend has created variability in clinical experience and education amongst accredited pain medicine programs with minimal literature evaluating the differences and commonalities in education and experience of different pain medicine fellowships through Program Director (PD) experiences...

BACKGROUND: This study compares emergency department (ED) revisits for patients receiving hospital-based substance-use support compared to those who did not receive specialized addiction services at Health Sciences North in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. METHODS: The study is a retrospective observational study using administrative data from all patients presenting with substance use disorder (SUD) at Health Sciences North from January 1, 2018, and August 31, 2022 with ICD-10 codes from the Discharge Abstract Database (DAD) and the National Ambulatory Care Database (NACRS)...

Contemporary mind and brain sciences provide theories and data that seem to confirm a hypothesis about human nature that we might formulate as follows. Human life is conditioned by a need that is no less important than elementary biological needs (such as survival and reproduction) or universal forms of social competition: the need to build and, indeed, defend a subjective identity whose solidity and clarity are the foundation of our intra- and inter-personal equilibrium and therefore of psychological well-being and mental health...

In line with recent proposals for experimental philosophy and philosophy of science in practice, we propose that the philosophy of medicine could benefit from incorporating empirical research, just as bioethics has. In this paper, we therefore take first steps towards the development of an empirical philosophy of medicine, that includes investigating practical and moral dimensions. This qualitative study gives insight into the views and experiences of a group of various medical professionals and patient representatives regarding the conceptualization of health and disease concepts in practice and the possible problems that surround them...

The controversy over the equivalence of continuous sedation until death (CSD) and physician-assisted suicide/euthanasia (PAS/E) provides an opportunity to focus on a significant extended use of CSD. This extension, suggested by the equivalence of PAS/E and CSD, is designed to promote additional patient autonomy at the end-of-life. Samuel LiPuma, in his article, "Continuous Sedation Until Death as Physician-Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia: A Conceptual Analysis" claims equivalence between CSD and death; his paper is seminal in the equivalency debate...

We developed the open-source bIUreactor research platform for studying 3D structured tissues. The versatile and modular platform allows a researcher to generate 3D tissues, culture them with oxygenated perfusion, and provide cyclic loading, all in their own lab (in laboratorium) for an all in cost of $8,000 including 3D printer, printing resin, and electronics. We achieved this by applying a design philosophy that leverages 3D printing, open-source software and hardware, and practical techniques to produce the following: 1...

Many extant theories of placebo focus on their causal structure wherein placebo effects are those that originate from select features of the therapy (e.g., client expectations or "incidental" features like size and shape). Although such accounts can distinguish placebos from standard medical treatments, they cannot distinguish placebos from everyday occurrences, for example, when positive feedback improves our performance on a task. Providing a social-epistemological account of a treatment context can rule out such occurrences, and furthermore reveal a new way to distinguish clinical placebos from standard medical treatments...

It is widely agreed that living kidney donation is permitted but living kidney sales are not. Call this the Received View. One way to support the Received View is to appeal to a particular understanding of the conditions under which living kidney transplantation is permissible. It is often claimed that donors must act altruistically, without the expectation of payment and for the sake of another. Call this the Altruism Requirement. On the conventional interpretation, the Altruism Requirement is a moral fact...

Metaphysical realism about mental disorder is the thesis that mental disorder exists mind-independently. There are two ways to challenge metaphysical realism about mental disorder. The first is by denying that mental disorder exists. The second is by denying that mental disorder exists mind-independently. Or, differently put, by arguing that mental disorder is mind-dependent. The aim of this paper is three-fold: (a) to examine three ways in which mental disorder can be said to be mind-dependent (namely, by being causally dependent on the human mind, by being weakly dependent on human attitudes, and by being strongly dependent on human attitudes), (b) to clarify their differences, and (c) to discuss their implications regarding metaphysical realism about mental disorder...

The placebo effect is now generally defined widely as an individual's response to the psychosocial context of a clinical treatment, as distinct from the treatment's characteristic physiological effects. Some researchers, however, argue that such a wide definition leads to confusion and misleading implications. In response, they propose a narrow definition restricted to the therapeutic effects of deliberate placebo treatments. Within the framework of modern medicine, such a scope currently leaves one viable placebo treatment paradigm: the non-deceptive and non-concealed administration of "placebo pills" or open-label placebo (OLP) treatment...

Honor walks are ceremonies that purportedly honor organ donors as they make their final journey from the ICU to the OR. In this paper, we draw on Ronald Grimes' work in ritual studies to examine honor walks as ceremonial rituals that display medico-technological power in a symbolic social drama (Grimes, 1982). We argue that while honor walks claim to honor organ donors, ceremonies cannot primarily honor donors, but can only honor donation itself. Honor walks promote the quasi-religious idea of donation as a "good death," and mask the ambiguity and discomfort inherent in organ donation to promote greater acceptance by the medical community...

BACKGROUND: Teamwork in emergency medical services is a very important factor in efforts to improve patient safety. The potential differences of staff gender on communication, patient safety, and teamwork were omitted. The aim of this study is to evaluate these inadequately examined areas. METHODS: A descriptive and anonymous study was conducted with an online questionnaire targeting emergency physicians and paramedics. The participants were asked about teamwork, communication, patient safety and handling of errors...

In the United States, there is little clarity on the qualifications and availability of equine nutritionists. Currently, no regulatory body exists for formal credentialing outside of veterinary medicine. Most equine nutritionists are not veterinarians but do have advanced scientific degrees (Master of Science and/or Doctor of Philosophy) in the field of Animal Science. However, not all reporting to be equine nutritionists have formal education in the field of equine nutrition. To discuss this, a workshop was held at the 2023 Equine Science Society (ESS) meeting...

Regenerative Medicine promises to develop treatments to regrow healthy tissues and cure the physical body. One of the emerging developments within this field is regenerative implants, such as jawbone or heart valve implants, that can be broken down by the body and are gradually replaced with living tissue. Yet challenges for embodiment are to be expected, given that the implants are designed to integrate deeply into the tissue of the living body, so that implant and body become one. In this paper, we explore how regenerative implants may affect the embodied experience of implant recipients...

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Sleep problems, according to Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) philosophy, are attributed to the imbalance between yin and yang. Zhumian Granules, also known as Sleep-aid Granules or ZG, are a traditional Chinese herbal remedy specifically designed to alleviate insomnia. This formula consists of many components, including Wu Wei Zi (Schisandrae Chinensis Fructus), Suan Zao Ren (Ziziphi Spinosae Semen), and other medicinal plants. According to the pharmacology of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), Wu Wei Zi and Suan Zao Ren have the ability to relax the mind and promote sleep...

Moral or ethical questions are vital because they affect our daily lives: what is the best choice we can make, the best action to take in a given situation, and ultimately, the best way to live our lives? Health ethics has contributed to moving ethics toward a more experience-based and user-oriented theoretical and methodological stance but remains in our practice an incomplete lever for human development and flourishing. This context led us to envision and develop the stance of a "living ethics", described in this inaugural collective and programmatic paper as an effort to consolidate creative collaboration between a wide array of stakeholders...

My fundamental thesis is that Rachels dismisses the traditional Western account of the morality of killing without offering a viable replacement. In this regard, I will argue that the substitute account he offers is deficient in at least eight regards: (1) he fails to justify the foundational principle of utilitarianism, (2) he exposes preference utilitarianism to the same criticisms he lodges against classical utilitarianism, (3) he neglects to explain how precisely one performs the maximization procedure which preference utilitarianism requires, (4) his account of the sanctity of life is subject to the very criticism he levels against the traditional position, (5) he cannot justify the exceptions he makes to his interpretation of the sanctity of life, (6) his account could easily be used to justify murder, (7) his embrace of autonomy as an ethical principle undermines his preference utilitarianism, and (8) he cannot maintain the moral identification of acts of killing and letting die...

This is a case report presenting a female patient in her twenties suffering from severely stained, unaesthetic, and worn-out teeth since her childhood. It was a major aesthetic and functional concern for her. This clinical presentation describes the prosthetic rehabilitation of a patient with generalized discolored and worn-out teeth to have enhanced aesthetics and masticatory function of the patient. This is a referred case of dentinogenesis imperfecta- II (DGI-II) from the Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology and Oral Pathology, as diagnosed by them after a thorough clinical, radiographical, and histopathological examination...