Many years ago, Alex Comfort experimentally refuted Bidder's hypothesis that fish potentially were immortal. Later morphological and physiological studies, together with observations from fish populations in the wild, revealed that fish age in a way similar to that in other vertebrates. More recently, assessments of the age of fish have been revised, and have shown that some species live much longer than was estimated.
Mortality trends during the past 50 years in the population of a hospital group for the mentally handicapped are reported. There has been a marked change in the causes of death during this period. Whilst tuberculosis is no longer a major cause, other terminal respiratory tract infections are still prevalent. Deaths due to status epilepticus have decreased, with a concomitant increase in those due to carcinoma, myocardial infarction and cerebrovascular accident. Similarly, the mortality rate has altered significantly.
A higher rate of psychosis has been observed in immigrant populations as compared to the indigenous populations of the UK. Specifically, second generation immigrants (born in the UK) have been noted to have the highest risk. This phenomenon has been attributed to a number of genetic and social factors such as problems with acculturation. Previous studies in Luton, Bedfordshire have shown that the Bangladeshi community experience the highest rate of psychosis above all other ethnic minorities in this area.
We assess the number of patients who we have on the Database of a Community Mental Health Team in the UK who have Bipolar Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder. We report how many of these have been seen as having both disorders. Hence we discuss the issue as to whether Borderline Personality disorder is to be placed within the bipolar spectrum.
Physician, traveller, writer and spy, Andrew Boorde was born c1490 and became a Carthusian monk after abandoning his medical studies at Oxford. Temperamentally unsuited to the life of a religious, after 20 years at the London Charterhouse he obtained a dispensation to travel to Europe to continue his medical studies. Returning to England he began to practise medicine, treating members of the nobility and, through a meeting with Thomas Cromwell which was to influence the rest of his life, he attended the King, Henry VIII.
Knowledge of inbreeding levels in historical times is necessary to estimate the health consequences of past inbreeding, and to contextualize the current public debate about cousin marriage in Britain. This research aims to calculate the level of cousin marriage using the intensive technique of multi-source parish reconstitution and to determine whether village organization, religion and occupational class influenced the level of consanguineous marriage.
Letitia Fairfield - doctor, lawyer, public health worker, feminist and war worker - was a woman of surprising contradictions. She displayed some eccentric tendencies that sometimes did not sit comfortably with her role as a medical professional; she was, for example, a believer in witchcraft and a convert to Roman Catholicism. However, she made great contributions to medicine throughout her active career and did so during a period in which female access to medical education was limited. Few of her female or male peers received such respect or oversaw such change.
BACKGROUND: Many theories have been proposed to explain the high levels of 'excess' mortality (i.e. higher mortality over and above that explained by differences in socio-economic circumstances) shown in Scotland-and, especially, in its largest city, Glasgow-compared with elsewhere in the UK. One such proposal relates to differences in optimism, given previously reported evidence of the health benefits of an optimistic outlook. METHODS: A representative survey of Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester was undertaken in 2011.
