- Army Doctors Tell Soldiers With Brain Injuries to ‘Stop Complaining’ | Investigations | AlterNet — The military medical system is failing to diagnose brain injuries in troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of whom receive little or no treatment for lingering health problems, an investigation by ProPublica and NPR has found. So-called mild traumatic brain injury has been called one of the wars’ signature wounds. Shock waves from roadside bombs can ripple through soldiers’ brains, causing damage that sometimes leaves no visible scars but may cause lasting mental and physical harm.
- Holding hands ‘more beneficial to health than pills’ — Mature Times — Holding hands is becoming an activity for the young and in love, leaving many older people lonely and missing out on important physical contact with family members. These findings have been revealed by Abbeyfield, a registered charity dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for older people, to launch Abbeyfield Week (5th – 13th June) and highlight the issue of loneliness for older people.
- Trauma and Idioms of Distress”: a special issue of Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry — Somatosphere — The latest Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry is a special issue on “Trauma and Idioms of Distress,” co-edited by Devon E. Hinton and Roberto Lewis-Fernández, who write that the issue “focuses on the role played by idioms of distress in the local trauma ontology, the associations between the idioms and psychiatric disorders occurring in the context of trauma and the mechanisms by which the idioms profoundly influence the personal and interpersonal course of trauma-related disorders,” (2010). In addition to a number of articles reporting on ethnographic and clinical research, the issue includes a reflection by Mark Nichter, who first developed the concept of idioms of distress during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
- FDA warns Pfizer for not reporting side effects — Yahoo Health — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warned Pfizer Inc for failing to quickly report serious and unexpected potential side effects from its drugs already on the market.