- Table View
- List View
Women's Health and the Limits of Law: Domestic and International Perspectives (Routledge Research in Human Rights Law)
by Irehobhude O. IyiohaDespite some significant advances in the creation and protection of rights affecting women’s health, these do not always translate into actual health benefits for women. This collection asks: 'What is an effective law and what influences law’s effectiveness or ineffectiveness? What dynamics, elements, and conditions come together to limit law’s capacity to achieve instrumental goals for women’s health and the advancement of women’s health rights?' The book presents an integrated, co-referential and sustained critical discussion of the normative and constitutive reasons for law’s limited effectiveness in the field of women’s health. It offers comprehensive and cohesive explanatory accounts of law’s limits and for the first time in the field, introduces a distinction between formal and substantive effectiveness of laws. Its approach is trans-systemic, multi-jurisdictional and comparative, with a focus on six countries in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa and international human rights case law based on matters arising from Hungary, Portugal, Spain, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Peru and Bolivia. The book will be a valuable resource for educators, students, lawyers, rights advocates and policymakers working in women’s health, socio-legal studies, human rights, feminist legal studies, and legal philosophy more broadly.
Women's Health and the World's Cities (The City in the Twenty-First Century)
by Afaf Ibrahim Meleis Eugenie L. Birch Susan M. WachterGrowing urbanization affects women and men in fundamentally different ways, but the relationship between gender and city environments has been ignored or misunderstood. Women and men play different roles, frequent different public areas, and face different health risks. Women suffer disproportionately from disease, injury, and violence because their access to resources is often more limited than that of their male counterparts. Yet, when women are healthy and safe, so are their families and communities. Urban policy makers and public health professionals need to understand how conditions in densely populated places can help or harm the well-being of women in order to serve this large segment of humanity.Women's Health and the World's Cities illuminates the intersection of gender, health, and urban environments. This collection of essays examines the impact of urban living on the physical and psychological states of women and girls in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the United States. Urban planners, scholars, medical practitioners, and activists present original research and compelling ideas. They consider the specific needs of subpopulations of urban women and evaluate strategies for designing spaces, services, and infrastructure in ways that promote women's health. Women's Health and the World's Cities provides urban planners and public health care providers with on-the-ground examples of projects and policies that have changed women's lives for the better.
Women's Health Companion to Maternal-Child Nursing Care: Optimizing Outcomes for Mothers, Children, and Families
by Shelton M. HisleyA unique emphasis on optimizing outcomes, evidence-based practice, and research supports the goal of caring for women, families and children, not only in traditional hospital settings, but also wherever they live, work, study, or play. Clear, concise, and easy to follow, the content is organized around four major themes, holistic care, critical thinking, validating practice, and tools for care that help students to learn and apply the material.
Women's Health in Africa: Issues, Challenges and Opportunities
by Chimaraoke O. Izugbara, Eleanor Krassen Covan and Elizabeth Fugate-WhitlockThis edited book includes new policy-relevant research on women’s health issues in Africa. Scholars explore critical topics from different disciplinary traditions using a variety of research methodologies and data sources. The contributors include African scholars with in-depth knowledge of their home contexts, who can furnish nuanced interpretations of local health issues and trends; international researchers who bring vigorous comparative viewpoints; emerging scholars adding to scientific knowledge; and more established researchers with a deep global knowledge of women’s health issues. The range of women’s health issues is vast, including the HIV epidemic and its impacts; domestic violence; the persistence of homebirths; and abortion. In addition, the book investigates emerging health concerns such as CVDs and cancers. Readers will learn that, while old health issues have persisted and assumed new dimensions, newer concerns have materialized and are gaining momentum. The inability of health systems to tackle these issues complicates matters in Africa, creating a sense of desperation that can only be successfully confronted through strong political will and strategic planning, grounded in further research. This book was originally published as several special issues of Health Care for Women International.
Women's Health in Autoimmune Diseases
by Shefali Khanna SharmaThis book focuses on conveying autoimmune disease expertise to gynecologists and other clinicians, allowing them to approach the treatment of each disease in a pragmatic manner. Each chapter reviews the current literature on treatments for autoimmune diseases, especially under special circumstances like pregnancy; rating disease severity; and providing practical guidelines based on the current state of knowledge. How autoimmune diseases affect fertility, and how to best prepare patients with these diseases for pregnancy, is also addressed. Unfortunately the current literature does not provide effective guidelines. This book addresses that shortcoming, and will help clinicians to implement appropriate treatments, while also outlining possible alternatives in order to provide effective treatment for women living with autoimmune diseases. It also explores important issues concerning autoimmune diseases in women such as: lupus nephritis, vasculitis, Sjogren’s syndrome, anti phospholipid syndrome and systemic sclerosis, and their potential effects on unborn children. Given its scope, the book offers a valuable reference guide for Practicing Clinicians, Rheumatologists and Gynecologists, among others.
Women's Health in IBD: The Spectrum of Care from Birth to Adulthood
by Sunanda V. Kane Bincy P. Abraham Kerri L. GlassnerA comprehensive guide, Women’s Health in IBD: The Spectrum of Care From Birth to Adulthood will help providers approach the specific issues that women with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) face throughout their lifetimes. This book will better equip providers to counsel and support women of all ages with IBD.In Women's Health in IBD, Drs. Bincy P. Abraham, Sunanda V. Kane, and Kerri L. Glassner focus on the unique aspects of care for women with IBD. Half of the IBD patient population is female. As we understand more about gender and sex differences in terms of genetics, physiology, and medical care, it is important to consider these factors between men and women to personalize their care.This book encompasses the entire life span of the female IBD patient through birth, adolescence, pregnancy, menopause, and older adult years. Each chapter includes discussions of medications, treatment plans, and common questions or controversies on important topics in IBD such as: Transitioning from pediatric to adult care Diet and nutrition Mental health Health maintenance Family planning Pregnancy and breastfeeding Menopause Concomitant irritable bowel syndrome Women’s Health in IBD: The Spectrum of Care From Birth to Adulthood is an essential text that will help anyone who treats women with IBD, offering practical tools and takeaways for point of care and beyond.
Women’s Health in Interventional Radiology
by Elizabeth Ignacio Anthony C. VenbruxWritten as a concise, clinical guide to major interventional procedures impacting upon women's health, Women's Health in Interventional Radiology focuses on a wide range of vascular and non-vascular interventions commonly performed in daily practice, including those related to the pelvis, fallopian tube, spine, and lower extremities. Chapters provide key clinical background information on each intervention, including pathophysiology, clinical manifestations, basic anatomy, and imaging features, before moving on to step-by-step explanations of the techniques. Accompanied by high-quality illustrations and images throughout, chapters also include technical hints, pearls, and pitfalls, postoperative care guidelines, outcomes data, and complications. Written by an expert group of experienced interventionalists, this book promises the reader a comprehensive overview of interventions currently performed to treat problems affecting the health of women and is a valuable resource for both practicing physicians and those in training.
Women's Health In Mainland Southeast Asia
by Andrea WhittakerA thought-provoking look at women’s health in developing nations! This book shows how war, military regimes, industrialization, urbanization, and social upheaval have all affected the choices Southeast Asian women make about their health and health care. When you read these first-person accounts from Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Burma, you’ll be drawn into the lives of women dealing with drastic changes in their societies. The meticulous case studies in this book examine how social, cultural, and economic forces contribute to the way women make personal health care decisions. Women’s Health in Mainland Southeast Asia offers a thought-provoking look into the lives of women in this developing part of the world. Topics addressed in Women’s Health in Mainland Southeast Asia include: a proposed new approach to women’s health, where treatment is determined by society, culture, and gender rather than by biology alone the relationship between menstruation and other aspects of life for Burmese women the politics of abortion in Thailand the difficulties of seeking care for reproductive tract infections in Vietnam the influence of local culture on the treatment of reproductive health problems in northeast Thailand occupational health hazards faced by women working in the electronics industry in northern Thailand the links between migration, sex work, and HIV/AIDS among female garment factory workers in Cambodia
Women's Health Matters
by Helen RobertsWomen's Health Matters, like its sister volume Women's Health Counts, is an invaluable practical guide to doing feminist research on women's health. Written by experienced researchers and practitioners, these lively accounts of research work range from getting the research idea, through obtaining the funding and doing the research, to the practical problems faced, and eventual publication. The book provides an ideal antidote to textbooks and manuals, giving the reader a taste of the problems and pleasures of doing real research.
Women’s Health Movements: A Global Force for Change
by Meredeth TurshenThis book follows the implications of the changing landscape for women’s health and health care and their sexual and reproductive rights. In the latest national and international health policy developments, we are witnessing the effects of a series of concerted conservative attacks on women. Facing this onslaught, women’s health movements are using the new technologies of the Internet and social media and finding other novel ways to advance their rights and protest against attempts to roll back the gains they made in the last four decades. Detailed country case studies and discussions of topics ranging from violence against women, disability, and birth control, as well as abundant examples of women’s activism from all over the world make this account of women’s health movements a lively, informative, and compelling read.
Women's Health on the Internet
by Janet M CogganShare the results of 45 years of front-line medical research!This valuable book covers varied organ pathology in a wide range of syndromes induced by viral infection and toxin exposure. Enteroviral and Toxin Mediated Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Other Organ Pathologies discusses such lethal problems as cardiomyopathy, liver failure, pancreatic cancer, brain tumors, and renal disease, as well as the debilitating disorders of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and other post-viral syndromes. This essential text is profusely illustrated with photographs, photomicrographs, charts, EKGs, X-rays, and graphic depictions of other medical test results.With case studies of individual patients and whole families, Enteroviral and Toxin Mediated Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Other Organ Pathologies brings you the benefit of seeing the patients and their illnesses in the context of their lifestyles, work histories, and family medical history. Not a retrospective survey using medical records alone, this unique book is the result of Dr. Richardson's more than 45 years doing research with the prestigious Newcastle Research Group while engaged in General Family Practice. The scope of this book includes: the complex relationship between host and virus the aftereffects of viral illnesses on various systems, including the cardiovascular, nervous, and endocrine discussions of varied effects of viral syndromes on different family members consideration of viral effects on mother and fetus during pregnancy ideas for treatment and further researchEnteroviral and Toxin Mediated Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Other Organ Pathologies provides both powerful case studies and exciting theoretical considerations based on research. It is an essential tool for family physicians as well as researchers into post-viral syndromes and the effects of toxin exposure.
Women's Imaging
by Haydee Ojeda-Fournier Dragana Djilas Mohamed El-Azzazi Richard C. Semelka Michele A. BrownWomen's Imaging: MRI with Multimodality Correlation is the latest volume in the growing Wiley-Blackwell radiology series Current Clinical Imaging, edited by Richard Semelka, MD. It is first book available anywhere that offers a concise and richly illustrated overview of the whole topic of women's imaging with primary emphasis on MR imaging. Specifically, the book covers MR imaging techniques, imaging strategies for women's health, normal anatomy of the pelvis and breast, and various disease processes and their imaging appearances. Practical image interpretation is emphasized throughout the book, making clear use of tables and checklists for reviewing images, and offering careful examination of differential diagnoses and special notes on key learning points. Special emphasis is given to MRI - which is widely regarded as the newest, most complex, least well understood, and often most definitive imaging modality available to those who practice women's imaging - but correlations to other imaging modalities such as X-ray, CT scan, and ultrasound are frequently provided.
Women’s Journeys to Posttraumatic Growth: A Guide for the Helping Professions and Women Who Have Experienced Trauma
by Mary Ellen Doherty Elizabeth Scannell-DeschThis accessible book draws on research around women’s experiences to illustrate and explore the concept of posttraumatic growth, emphasizing practice implications for healthcare professionals and strategies for fostering posttraumatic growth. Including the voices of women, in their own words, Women’s Journeys to Posttraumatic Growth explains the differences between post-traumatic stress disorder and posttraumatic growth and presents the theoretical framework of posttraumatic growth. It synthesizes relevant international research and introduces data from four new qualitative research studies on posttraumatic growth in women who have experienced the death of a spouse or longtime partner, death of a child, a close brush with death, and intimate partner abuse. The book develops clinical and nursing practice implications for healthcare professionals and explores current self-help and professional therapeutic strategies to foster posttraumatic growth. Women’s Journeys to Posttraumatic Growth is an invaluable guide for health and social care practitioners, as well as students and researchers with an interest in trauma, abuse, bereavement and loss, and women’s healthcare.
Women's Mental Health: A Clinical and Evidence-Based Guide
by Joel Rennó Jr. Gislene Valadares Amaury Cantilino Jeronimo Mendes-Ribeiro Renan Rocha Antonio Geraldo da SilvaThere is an increasing focus on medical studies related to differences between men and women, and women’s mental health stands out as one of the most important fields where sex-based differences are being investigated. Overall, studies show an existence of important sex-specific differences in several aspects of psychiatric disorders such as etiology, epidemiology, clinical presentation and therapeutics. In this book, recognized experts present the current state of knowledge on this topic, providing a reliable, accurate and comprehensive clinical guide to women's mental health. The book will steer clear of an in-depth discussion of genetics and sex-based differences to focus quickly and narrowly on how best to diagnose and treat psychiatric disorders in women, thereby offering a targeted and practical guide for clinicians. It is intended to serve a broad audience -- including psychiatrists, psychologists, family physicians, obstetricians, gynecologists, nurses, social workers and other medical and mental health providers with an interest in women's mental health. Women's Mental Health: A Clinical and Evidence-Based Guide will be fully evidence-based and will present chapters authored by distinguished leaders with extensive experience and clinical wisdom in this area. It offers psychiatrists, psychologists, family physicians, obstetricians, gynecologists, nurses, social workers and other medical and mental health providers a valuable source of information to enhance their clinical practice.
Women's Mental Health Across the Lifespan: Challenges, Vulnerabilities, and Strengths (Clinical Topics in Psychology and Psychiatry)
by Kathleen A. Kendall-Tackett Lesia M. RuglassWomen’s Mental Health Across the Lifespan examines women’s mental health from a developmental perspective, looking at key stressors and strengths from adolescence to old age. Chapters focus in detail on specific stressors and challenges that can impact women’s mental health, such as trauma, addictions, and mood and anxiety disorders. This book also examines racial and ethnic disparities in women’s physical and mental health, mental health of sexual minorities and women with disabilities, and women in the military, and includes valuable suggestions for putting knowledge into practice.
Women's Mood Disorders: A Clinician’s Guide to Perinatal Psychiatry
by Elizabeth CoxThis text provides background on the history of perinatal psychiatry, and discusses future directions in the field. It clearly defines perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs), which are the most common complication of pregnancy. When left untreated, PMADs are morbid and devastating for both the patient and their entire family. It reviews gold standard recommendations for the treatment of PMADs, including evidence-based psychotherapies, as well as risk-benefit analysis of psychotropic medication use in pregnancy and lactation. Additionally, common presentations of depression, anxiety, and trauma in pregnancy and postpartum women, as well as mania, psychosis, suicidal and homicidal thoughts are reviewed. Women’s Mood Disorders: A Clinician’s Guide to Perinatal Psychiatry highlights special considerations in pregnancy, including teenage pregnancies, hyperemesis gravidum, eating disorders, substance abuse disorders, as well as infertility, miscarriage and loss. The text concludes with outlining the importance of collaborative care in providing gold standard treatment of perinatal women and review documentation and legal considerations. This handbook will help educate and train future psychiatrists and OBGYNs in feeling confident and comfortable assessing and treating pregnant women who suffer from PMADs.
Women's Moods: What Every Woman Must Know About Hormones, the Brain, and Emotional Health
by Deborah Sichel Jeanne Watson DriscollDiscusses the ways menstruation and pregnancy affect mood disorders in women.
Women's Qigong for Health and Longevity: A Practical Guide for Women Forty and Older
by Deborah DavisHere is a detailed, easy-to-use guidebook for women forty and older on how to use gentle but powerful traditional Chinese exercises, breathing techniques, massage, meditation, and vocalizations to promote health, fitness, relaxation, and mental clarity; improve stamina; and even treat specific health concerns. Acupuncturist and longtime qigong practitioner Deborah Davis explains the traditional Chinese approach to health and the various components of qigong practice; gives general health routines for women in specific age groups; and offers do-it-yourself practices and routines for specific health issues including insomnia, hypertension and heart disease, menopause, sexual vitality, breast health, breast cancer, osteoporosis, and depression.To learn more about the author, visit her website: www.womensqigong.com.
Women's Reproductive Mental Health Across the Lifespan
by Diana Lynn Barnes"In this book you'll find a thoughtfully edited chronicle of the unique convergence of genetic, hormonal, social, and environmental forces that influence a woman's mental health over the course of her life. Both comprehensive and nuanced, Women's Reproductive Mental Health Across the Lifespan captures the science, clinical observation, and collective wisdom of experts in the field. Professionals and laypersons alike are well-advised to make room on their bookshelves for this one!"-Margaret Howard, Ph. D. , Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University; Women & Infants Hospital, Providence RI"This outstanding collection of work is an important, timely, and much needed resource. Dr. Diana Lynn Barnes has been instrumental in bringing attention to the needs of perinatal women for decades. In Women's Reproductive Health Across the Lifespan, she brilliantly unites the medical world of reproductive life events with the psychiatric and psychological world of mental health issues associated with them. Her expertise, combined with contributions by distinguished leaders in the field, create a volume of work that should be studied carefully by every medical and mental health provider who works with women. "-Karen Kleiman, MSW, The Postpartum Stress Center, Author of Therapy and the Postpartum Woman"Finally, a book that addresses the entire scope of women's reproductive mental health spanning the gamut from puberty to menopause. The list of chapter contributors reads like a who's who of international experts. Unique to this book is its focus on the interaction of genetics, hormonal fluctuations, and the social environment. It is a must addition for the libraries of clinicians and researchers in women's reproductive mental health". -Cheryl Tatano Beck, DNSc, CNM, FAAN, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor, School of Nursing, University of ConnecticutPregnancy and childbirth are generally viewed as joyous occasions. Yet for numerous women, these events instead bring anxiety, depression, and emotional distress. Increased interest in risk reduction and early clinical intervention is bringing reproductive issues to the forefront of women's mental health. The scope of Women's Reproductive Mental Health across the Lifespan begins long before the childbearing years, and continues well after those years have ended. Empirical findings, case examples, and dispatches from emerging areas of the field illuminate representative issues across the continuum of women's lives with the goal of more effective care benefitting women and their families. Chapter authors discuss advances in areas such as fertility treatment and contraception, and present current thinking on the psychological impact of pregnancy loss, menopause, cancer, and other stressors. These expert contributors emphasize the connections between an individual's biology and psychology and cultural expectations in shaping women's mental health, and the balance between a client's unique history and current clinical knowledge clinicians need to address disorders. Included in the coverage:-The experience of puberty and emotional wellbeing. -Body image issues and eating disorders in the childbearing years. -Risk assessment and screening during pregnancy. -Normal and pathological postpartum anxiety. -Mood disorders and the transition to menopause. -The evolution of reproductive psychiatry. A reference with an extended shelf life, Women's Reproductive Mental Health across the Lifespan enhances the work of researchers and practitioners in social work, clinical psychology, and psychiatry, and has potential relevance to all health care professionals.
Women's Spirituality, Women's Lives
by Ellen Cole Judith OchshornThis enlightening book examines how the feminist spirituality movement contributes to the establishment of new paradigms of mental health for women. Women’s Spirituality, Women’s Lives examines possible psychotherapeutic implications for women engaged in feminist spirituality and stimulates much-needed conversation between feminist therapists and feminist theologians/ritualists. Feminist spirituality is part of the current broad challenge to accepted ways of knowing and being. This book argues that as women tell their own stories, they create rituals that enable them to feel a sense of control over the future and to move toward a kind of authority, agency, and autonomy associated with mental health and psychological well-being. Women from many cultural backgrounds and religious perspectives have embraced alternative forms of spiritual expression, based on profound theoretical challenges to mainstream religious beliefs, ranging from calls for the radical reclamation and reconstruction of religious traditions to personal involvement in goddess worship and Wicca. Women’s Spirituality, Women’s Lives presents theoretical, conceptual, and experiential chapters that analyze the extent to which these proliferating women’s groups represent the beginnings of new norms of mental health for women.Women’s Spirituality, Women’s Lives presents a variety of voices, including Native American, Christian, Jewish, and Wiccan. Chapters are divided into three sections--Laying the Groundwork, Theoretical Challenges, and Living It Out--and explore a diverse array of topics such as: the “shouting” church and Black women’s mental health a traditionalist Native American challenge to New Age cooptation a feminist group and Jewish women’s self-identity lesbian altar-making and mental health feminist Wicca in the U.S. and Germany the martial arts and women’s mental health the use of feminist rituals in therapy and as therapyFeminist therapists and theologians, as well as other individuals interested in feminist spirituality or alternative spirituality, will find this book a fascinating exploration of the various aspects of the spirituality of women. Women’s Spirituality, Women’s Lives is also an excellent reader to expand the thinking of students in classes in women’s studies and religious studies.
Women's Stories of Divorce at Childbirth: When the Baby Rocks the Cradle (Haworth Marriage And The Family Ser.)
by Hilary HogeExplore the reasons that new families break up!This landmark book examines the causes and consequences of divorce occurring during pregnancy or within a year of childbirth. Women’s Stories of Divorce at Childbirth: When the Baby Rocks the Cradle draws from the experiences of seventeen women who suffered this especially traumatic form of family breakup. Using ideas gleaned from psychoanalytic theory, academic psychology, attachment theory, sociology, trauma studies, and infant development research, Dr. Hoge examines the personal, familial, and social significance of these stories of personal betrayal and heartbreak.The women’s narratives show in stark detail how the transition to parenthood can become a personal crisis for some new fathers and mothers, one that may prompt them to run away, search out extramarital affairs, or lapse into addictions. Women’s Stories of Divorce at Childbirth also explores the short- and long-term effects of the resulting trauma, grief, and anger felt by the spouse left holding the baby. Because the women’s stories are discussed throughout the book, they become more than random cases chosen to illustrate a single point. Women’s Stories of Divorce at Childbirth discusses the important issues of early divorce, including: parenthood as transition and transformation emotional ramifications of extreme-condition divorces economic consequences of divorce at childbirth the lasting emotional reactions of infants and childrenWomen’s Stories of Divorce at Childbirth is a powerful, insightful examination of a potentially devastating problem. This well-written book will become a uniquely valuable resource to counselors and mental health professionals, couples having difficulty with the transition to parenthood, new parents who are considering divorce, and survivors of divorce at childbirth.
The Wonder and the Mystery: 10 Years of Reflections from the Annals of Family Medicine
by Robin GotlerPublished in association with the Annals of Family Medicine, The Wonder and the Mystery is an anthology of intimate personal stories and innovative ideas from the Annals' Reflections section. It includes a wide range of articles, from influential pieces on urgent topical issues to exceptional stories of unique individuals. These articles shed light on small moments and major life transitions. In the process, they help us find meaning in our own physical, emotional, and spiritual journeys. The one-of-a-kind stories and ideas in the book speak to all of us who are interested in health care and health, caring and connection: clinicians, patients, family members, researchers, policy makers, and more. The book reminds us that "the things we cannot measure may be the very things that will sustain us."
Wonder Drug: The Secret History of Thalidomide in America and Its Hidden Victims
by Jennifer VanderbesA riveting account of the most notorious drug of the twentieth century and the never-before-told story of its American survivorsIn 1959, a Cincinnati pharmaceutical firm, the William S. Merrell Company, quietly began distributing samples of an exciting new wonder drug already popular around the world. Touted as a sedative without risks, thalidomide was handed out freely, under the guise of clinical trials, by doctors who believed approval by the Food and Drug Administration was imminent. But in 1960, when the application for thalidomide landed on the desk of FDA medical reviewer Frances Kelsey, she quickly grew suspicious. When she learned that the drug was causing severe birth abnormalities abroad, she and a team of dedicated doctors, parents, and journalists fought tirelessly to block its authorization in the United States and stop its sale around the world.Jennifer Vanderbes set out to write about this FDA success story only to discover a sinister truth that had been buried for decades: For more than five years, several American pharmaceutical firms had distributed unmarked thalidomide samples in shoddy clinical trials, reaching tens of thousands of unwitting patients, including hundreds of pregnant women. As Vanderbes examined government and corporate archives, probed court records, and interviewed hundreds of key players, she unearthed an even more stunning find: Scores of Americans had likely been harmed by the drug. Deceived by the pharmaceutical firms, betrayed by doctors, and ignored by the government, most of these Americans had spent their lives unaware that thalidomide had caused their birth defects. Now, for the first time, this shocking episode in American history is brought to light. Wonder Drug gives voice to the unrecognized victims of this epic scandal and exposes the deceptive practices of Big Pharma that continue to endanger lives today.
The "Wonder Drug" that Killed Babies
by Joshua Lev Krieger Tom Nicholas Matthew Preble"During the late 1950s and very early 1960s, thalidomide was considered a “wonder drug.”1 It could be used by patients suffering from sleeplessness or related issues, such as anxiety and depression, with apparently no risk from misuse or overdose.2 Pregnant women began taking thalidomide to alleviate severe morning sickness, and one user noted that “within a day, I was able to eat again.”3 Because the potential market was wide, Chemie Grünenthal (Grünenthal), the West German firm that owned thalidomide, was keen to promote the drug.4 One observer noted how Grünenthal claimed that it “could be ‘given with complete safety to pregnant women and nursing mothers without any adverse effect on mother and child.’”5 Another reporter said it was “marketed as ‘safer than sugar drops’ . . . .”6 Consumers could buy the drug through Grünenthal subsidiaries and licensees in 46 countries, and it was sold under such brand names as Contergan, Distaval, and Kevadon.7"
The Wonder of the Human Hand: Care and Repair of the Body's Most Marvelous Instrument (A Johns Hopkins Press Health Book)
by E. F. Shaw WilgisSpecialists from a world-class hand center remind us how very important hands are and describe how medicine helps people whose hands are impaired.Using our hands, we interact with the environment in ways that are more sophisticated, more varied, and more productive than any other part of our body. The delicate instrument that is the hand makes it possible for us to knead dough and perform a heart transplant; make contact with strangers, friends, and lovers; throw a baseball; and create a scale model of a skyscraper and build that skyscraper. From the most mundane activity to our most sublime achievement, the hand has helped us shape the world and given us a deeper understanding of our place in it. In The Wonder of the Human Hand, surgeons and hand specialists from the world-renowned Curtis National Hand Center describe how the hand is used in work, sports, and music, and trace the human fascination with hands in religion and art. They relate awe-inspiring stories of people throughout history—including major league pitcher Jim Abbott, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Liebe Diamond, and pianist Leon Fleisher—who accomplished great things with one hand, or with impaired or injured hands, and they tell of marvelous surgeries that create fingers where none exist.Recounting how the hand interprets the environment and returns tactile information to the brain, the book underscores the importance of the hand to people who cannot see or hear. Throughout, the authors explore how medical science restores bones, tendons, nerves, muscles, and blood vessels in hands injured through disease, accident, and combat—ever aware of how the form and function of the human hand combine harmoniously in everyday activities and Herculean efforts alike.