Abstracts fra Bibliotek for Læger 1/2010

 

Internationale tilbageblik: Broer til Kina 
Erik Holst 

Kvartalets genstand
Morten A. Skydsgaard

Originalartikel: Medicin til raske – en syg ide? Medikalisering og risikotænkning i almen praksis belyst ved kvinders overgangsalder
Lotte Hvas

Medicine for healthy people – a sick idea? The concept of risk-thinking and medicalization in general practice. The case of menopause

Bibl Læger 2010;202:30–42.

This paper sums up the results from a thesis, which addresses the dilemmas that arise when general practitioners are counselling healthy people. The thesis is based on seven papers which describe women’s menopausal experiences. Both quantitative and qualitative data were used. Results: 1) The women mentioned several positive experiences in relation to menopause as well as to growing older. 2) Awareness of risk caused uncertainty and worry among some, but not all women. 3) Several menopausal discourses were identified. The medical discourse dominated. The handling of these dilemmas depends on an individual assessment, which leaves general practice in a privileged position. However, this position means that we, as doctors, must become more conscious of our own influence, when we are setting the agenda by introducing the idea of disease and risk.

Originalartikel: At tjene flere herrer. Om lægers finansielle interessekonflikter
Nina Vinther Andersen

To serve several masters. On the finansial conflicts of interests of doctors.

Bibl Læger 2010;202:43–53.

The extent of doctors’ financial conflicts of interests with the pharmaceutical industry has for years been hidden in Denmark. However, during recent years, Danish health authorities and the Danish Medical Association has taken steps to get doctors to inform about their work in the pharmaceutical industry, and subsequently the contours of these conflict of interests are beginning to show. Presently, approximately one out of twenty doctors works as a consultant for a pharmaceutical company beside his or her daytime job. It is well documented that doctors are influenced by money from the pharmaceutical industry, and it seems obvious that these conflicts of interests have an effect on patient treatment and the health economy. Danish doctors don’t seem as concerned about conflicts of interests as other professions, who have been working on the subject for years. The author argues that by changing the framework in which the cooperation with pharmaceutical companies takes place, it could be possible to hold on to developing life improving medicine, while at the same time minimizing the negative effects of these conflicts of interests.

Et billede fra min hverdag
Grete Teilmann

Originalartikel: Den fødte prostituerede. Mentalundersøgelser af prostituerede kvinder ved Københavns Byret 1936–1939
Frederik Kruse 

The born prostitute. Mental examination of prostitutes at the Copenhagen Court 1936–1939

Bibl Læger 2010;202:56–77.

In the period 1936–1939, more than 160 female prostitutes underwent a mental examination prior to their arraignment at the Court of Copenhagen. The purpose of the examination was to determine whether the accused was insane or feebleminded and consequently unfit for conventional punishment. The examinations were based on the eugenic presupposition that prostitution was a result of hereditary mental deficiencies of the prostitute. The doctors conducting the psychiatric assessments would examine the genealogy of the prostitute, and based on various examinations and intelligence tests they would gauge whether the accused was feebleminded, moronic, psychopathic, normal or morally deficient. The prostitutes would either be imprisoned, get a suspended sentence or become confined to an institution for mentally deficient. When mental examinations of prostitutes were introduced in the court of Copenhagen, medical authority expanded considerably. Medical doctors clearly gained a significant influence on judicial matters by way of the psychiatric assessments. Judges administered medically based therapeutic sentences and there was a high degree of compliance with medical recommendations.

For 150 år siden: Fra undfangelsen af laboratoriediagnostik i Danmark

- Bemærkninger til T.S. Warnckes »Meddelelse fra Frederiks Hospitals chemiske Laboratorium«
Jens F. Rehfeld

From the conception of laboratory diagnostics in Denmark

Bibl Læger 2010;202:78–83.

A laboratory for diagnostic biochemistry was established at Frederiks Hospital in Copenhagen in 1850. In 1860, the founder, Dr. Theodor Sophus Warncke (1822–1890), published a pionering report on the activity of the laboratory. This comment draws a line between the humble beginning of clinical biochemistry in Denmark with an annual analysis of 306 patient samples (mainly urine) to the present production of 5.5 million laboratory results (mainly blood) by the Department of Clinical Biochemistry at the same hospital in Copenhagen.

Meddelse fra Frederiks Hospitals chemiske Laboratorium
T. S. Warncke

Forside: Deltagerne på DadL’s kursus i sundhedsadministration i den kinesiske by Hangzhou, 1985 (privatfoto).