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Editor's choice

The beautiful mind

Frontiers

the month in research

Editorials

Why psychiatry?
The specialty is facing a crisis in recruitment in many countries, but a career in psychiatry is appealing and rewarding. So "why not?" asks Sabina Dosani

A prescription for better prescribing
Many medical students are unprepared to properly prescribe drugs after they qualify, argue Jeffrey K Aronson and colleagues. Will your training equip you with the skills you need?

News

Medical care practitioners: a necessary import?

news bites

Education

PubMed for improvers
Fine tune your skills in literature surveys, as Kirsteen Burton and Lorraine Toews explain how

Understanding stroke:Pathophysiology, presentation, and investigation
Every 45 seconds, someone in the United States has an attack of stroke. K A L Carroll and J Chataway discuss the pathology and clinical features of stroke, in the first of a two part series

Chest pain after vomiting
A 66 year old man, previously fit and well, was admitted to the emergency department with sudden pain in his left chest and abdomen after vomiting. He had woken in the early hours of the morning, vomited three times, and started getting progressively worsening pain in the left side of his chest and abdomen, radiating to the shoulder. He was a non-smoker and occasional drinker. He had no history of operations or similar episodes.

ABC of wound healing: Burns
About 250 000 people are burnt each year in the United Kingdom. Of these, almost 112 000 attend an emergency department, and about 210 die of their injuries. At least 250 000 others attend their general practitioner for treatment of their injury. A burn results in loss of epidermal integrity of the skin; this article discusses the cause and management of various types of burn injury

Careers

You must be out of your mind
Have you thought about psychiatry for a career? Shikha Singh thinks it's crazy that so many medical students have not

Tips on...Your obstetrics rotation

High life in the lowlands
The Netherlands is a great place for an elective or even a medical career. Erlangga Yusuf tells you all you need to know

Medicine meets law:forensic psychiatry
Undergraduate placements in forensic psychiatry enrich general medical training and help us face our prejudices, say Elisabeth Cottrell and Adrian Grounds

People

The man behind the selfish gene, memes,and gerin oil*
Thirty years ago, Richard Dawkins had his first book The Selfish Gene published, and he continues to write one bestseller after the next. Balaji Ravichandran caught up with him in the lead up to the publication of his next book, boldly titled The God Delusion

Papers

A controlled trial combined with a prospective cohort study
Sometimes the nature of a research question and its setting prohibit particular study designs for logistical or ethical reasons. Steven Reid explains a recent study that followed up a randomised controlled trial

Life

Ashes in the Ganges
Anita Banerjee reflects on the torment of losing a brother to psychiatric illness

Confessions of a depressed mind
For medical students to overcome depression may mean coping with the darkness, hopelessness and sadness while hiding the illness from a sceptical medical profession

Failed asylum seekers and primary care
Act within the law, and let patients be your primary concern. Lucy Carter examines the ethical dilemmas surrounding failed asylum seekers, and finds out whether their healthcare needs are met

Mental health after natural disaster
This October marks a year since Pakistan was hit by a devastating earthquake. Hassan Mustafa Minhas looks at how the earthquake has affected people's mental health

Hollywood schizophrenia
The portrayal of mental disorders in Hollywood movies has a considerable negative impact on public understanding, argue Alison Smith and Stephen J Cooper

Letters

Traditional learning has its merits

Medicine doesn't work as a graduate programme

Fake drugs: education is as important as control

Patients' involvement in health care will improve quality

Reviews

Creative minds

Health and human rights

Of medical sense and sensitivity

The meaning of social inclusion

Trim the fat

Eyespy