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Biomedical subjects

A Margulies

Publications and source records attributed to A Margulies.

13 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

Use of complementary and alternative medicine in cancer patients: a European survey.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to explore the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in cancer patients across a number of European countries. METHODS: A descriptive survey design was developed. Fourteen countries participated in the study and data was collected through a descriptive questionnaire from 956 patients. RESULTS: Data suggest that CAM is popular among cancer patients with 35.9% using some form of CAM (range among countries 14.8% to 73.1%). A heterogeneous group of 58 therapies were identified as being used. Herbal medicines and remedies were the most commonly used CAM therapies, together with homeopathy, vitamins/minerals, medicinal teas, spiritual therapies and relaxation techniques. Herbal medicine use tripled from use before diagnosis to use since diagnosis with cancer. Multivariate analysis suggested that the profile of the CAM user was that of younger people, female and with higher educational level. The source of information was mainly from friends/family and the media, while physicians and nurses played a small part in providing CAM-related information. The majority used CAM to increase the body's ability to fight cancer or improve physical and emotional well-being, and many seemed to have benefited from using CAM (even though the benefits were not necessarily related to the initial reason for using CAM). Some 4.4% of patients, however, reported side-effects, mostly transient. CONCLUSIONS: It is imperative that health professionals explore the use of CAM with their cancer patients, educate them about potentially beneficial therapies in light of the limited available evidence of effectiveness, and work towards an integrated model of health-care provision.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1987

Non-A, non-B fulminant viral hepatitis in France in returnees from Asia and Africa.

Among 61 patients admitted for non-A, non-B fulminant viral hepatitis to Hôpital Beaujon, 10 had returned from Asia or Africa, and 51 had not been outside France, within the month preceding jaundice. This suggests that hepatitis might have been contracted in Asia or Africa in the former, and in France in the latter. The interval between the onset of jaundice and the onset of hepatic encephalopathy was 10 days in the former and 26 days in the latter (P less than 0.03). The serum of the patient returning from Asia contained, and the sera of the nine patients returning from Africa did not contain, antibodies to a virus isolated from the stools of patients suffering from an epidemic fecal-oral non-A, non-B viral hepatitis in Central Asia. It is concluded that infection with Asian-African non-A, non-B viruses can be the cause of fulminant hepatitis in persons returning from these countries, that the course of this type of non-A, non-B fulminant viral hepatitis is shorter than that of non-A, non-B fulminant hepatitis contracted in France, and that different viruses might be responsible for non-A, non-B hepatitis in Asia and Africa.

Adult↗
PubMed1986

[Severe constipation indicative of pseudohypoparathyroidism and resolved after normalization of the blood calcium].

Hypocalcemia does not appear among the endocrine and metabolic causes of constipation. The work-up of a severe constipation has disclosed a pseudo-hypoparathyroidism according to the clinical picture described by Albright, associating signs of hypo-parathyroidism, a characteristic dysmorphic syndrome, mental deficiency and normal PTH dosages. The resolve of the constipation along with the return to a normal calcemia suggests that hypocalcemia should be added to the long list of endocrine and metabolic causes of constipation.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

On listening to a dream: the sensory dimensions.

In searching for the latent meaning of dreams, therapists often bypass the unique subjective reality of the dreamer and the therapist's own listening and imaginative processes. By way of exploring the sensory dimensions of a dream specimen, the author suggests that phenomenology, as a descriptive endeavor, can be complementary to traditional psychodynamic approaches and can lead to a renewed empathic appreciation of another's inner world and the therapist's continual struggle to enter into that reality.

Body Image↗
PubMed1984

Toward empathy: the uses of wonder.

How does one begin to approximate the inner experience of another? Empathic exploration demands of the investigator the creative capacity to suspend closure. The founders of phenomenology and psychoanalysis developed methods to facilitate a process of not-concluding, ways of keeping the mind open to new possibilities. Moreover, Husserl's phenomenological reduction and Freud's basic rule of free association bear striking affinities to Keats's formulation of the nature of artistic observation. Keats's quest for the heart of experience illuminates a path through imagination and toward empathy.

Creativity↗
PubMed1981

The initial encounter: what to do first?

The first interview presents dilemmas to the psychiatric practitioner. Is he or she to concentrate in objective-descriptive fashion, observing symptoms and signs, seeking the likely syndrome or disease concept? Is he or she to work associatively, toward unconscious themes as developed by the psychoanalytic schools? Would an existential approach be best, an attempt to understand the patient's life purposes and difficulties empathically? Alternatively, should the therapist grasp the patient's situation in interpersonal terms? The authors suggest that these decisions are less central than the need to establish a working relationship in order to continue the investigation or treatment and to uncover as much as possible of the relevant data, and that the newer schools of existential and interpersonal psychiatry offer the critical keys to achieving this.

Adult↗