Fallacies In Medicine And Health

This textbook examines the ways in which arguments may be used and abused in medicine and health. The central claim is that a group of arguments known as the informal fallacies – including slippery slope arguments, fear appeal, and the argument from ignorance – undertake considerable work in medical and health contexts, and that they can in fact be rationally warranted ways of understanding complex topics, contrary to the views of many earlier philosophers and logicians. Modern medicine and healthcare require lay people to engage with increasingly complex decisions in areas such as immunization, lifestyle and dietary choices, and health screening. Many of the so-called fallacies of reasoning can also be viewed as cognitive heuristics or short-cuts which help individuals make decisions in these contexts. Using features such as learning objectives, case studies and end-of-unit questions, this textbook examines topical issues and debates in all areas of medicine and health, including antibiotic use and resistance, genetic engineering, euthanasia, addiction to prescription opioids, and the legalization of cannabis. It will be useful to students of critical thinking, reasoning, logic, argumentation, rhetoric, communication, health humanities, philosophy and linguistics.

The progress of science and the growth of knowledge, claim the authors, depend upon challenging accepted dogma and belief. Their purpose in this book is not to criticize medicine or those who practice it but to advocate the need for criticism in medicine. Doctors, they claim, can discover new ways and improve old ways to ease the human journey from cradle to grave--through rational inquiry, honest admission of ignorance, and by demystifying rituals. No index. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

No one misses the onslaught of claims about reforming modern medical care. How doctors should be paid, how hospitals should be paid or governed, how much patients should pay when sick in co-payments, how the quality of care could be improved, and how governments and other buyers could better control the costs of care ? all find expression in the explosion of medical care conference proceedings, op-eds, news bulletins, journal articles, and books. This collection of articles takes up a key set of what the author regards as particularly misleading fads and fashions ? developments that produce a startling degree of foolishness in contemporary discussions of how to organize, deliver, finance, pay for and regulate medical care services in modern industrial democracies. The policy fads addressed include the celebration of explicit rationing as a major cost control instrument, the belief in a ?basic package? of health insurance benefits to constrain costs, the faith that contemporary cross-national research can deliver a large number of transferable models, and the notion that broadening the definition of what is meant by health will constitute some sort of useful advance in practice.Contents: Fads in Medical Care Policy and Politics: The Rhetoric and Reality of ManagerialismHow Not to Think About ?Managed Care?Medical Care and Public Policy: The Benefits and Burdens of Asking Fundamental QuestionsMedicare and Political Analysis: Omissions, Understandings, and MisunderstandingsComparative Perspectives and Policy Learning in the World of Health CareHow Not to Think About Medicare Reform Readership: Graduate students in public policy, comparative politics, management, nursing, medicine, and social sciences; medical writers; medical professionals.

Clinical Psychopharmacology offers a comprehensive guide to clinical practice that explores two major aspects of the field: the clinical research that exists to guide clinical practice of psychopharmacology, and the application of that knowledge with attention to the individualized aspects of clinical practice. The text consists of 50 chapters, organized into 6 sections, focusing on disease-modifying effects, non-DSM diagnostic concepts, and essential facts about the most common drugs. This innovative book advocates a scientific and humanistic approach to practice and examines not only the benefits, but also the harms of drugs. Providing a solid foundation of knowledge and a great deal of practical information, this book is a valuable resource for practicing psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, medical students and trainees in psychiatry, as well as pharmacists.

"Vaccination a Medical Fallacy" is the 20th book in the "History of Vaccination" series. The 25 books in the “History of Vaccination” series shed light on the history of vaccines through the eyes of doctors, scientists, and historical data. They answer the pressing question, “Are vaccines safe and effective?” The 25 books in the “History of Vaccination” series are: 1) The Poisoned Needle: Suppressed Facts About Vaccination Eleanor McBean 1957 2) A Century of Vaccination and What It Teaches William Scott Tebb, MA, MD, DPH 1898 3) Vaccination: Proved Useless and Dangerous From 45 Years of Registration Statistics Alfred R. Wallace, LLD DUBL., DCL OXON., FRS, etc. 1885 4) Vaccination: Its Fallacies and Evils Robert A. Gunn, MD 1882 5) Compulsory Vaccination: The Crime Against the School Child Chas. M. (Charles Michael) Higgins 1915 6) The Truth about Vaccination and Immunization Lily Loat, secretary of the National Anti-Vaccination League of London 1951 7) Leicester: Sanitation versus Vaccination Its Vital Statistics Compared with Those of Other Towns, the Army, Navy, Japan, and England and Wales By J.T. Biggs, J.P. 1912 8) The Vaccination Question Arthur Wollaston Hutton, MA 1895 9) Vaccination a Delusion: Its Penal Enforcement a Crime Alfred Russel Wallace, LLD DUBL., DCL OXON., FRS, etc. 1898 10) Vaccination a Curse and Menace to Personal Liberty With Statistics Showing Its Dangers and Criminality James Martin Peebles, MD, MA, PhD Tenth Edition, 1913 11) Dr. C.G.G. Nittinger’s Evils of Vaccination C. Charles Schieferdecker, MD 1856 12) The Vaccination Question in the Light of Modern Experience An Appeal for Reconsideration C. Killick Millard, M.D., D.Sc. 1914 13) Jenner and Vaccination: A Strange Chapter of Medical History Charles Creighton, MD 1889 14) The Horrors of Vaccination: Exposed and Illustrated Charles M. Higgins 1919 15) Vaccination: The Story of a Great Delusion William White 1885 16) Vital Statistics in the United States, 1940-1960 Robert D. Grove, Alice M. Hetzel US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare 1968 17) The Mandatory Vaccination Plan National Immunization Policy Council 1977 18) The Fraud of Vaccination Walter Hadwen, JP., MD, LRCP., MRCS, LSA From "Truth," January 3, 1923 19) Vaccination a Curse C.W. Amerige, MD 1895 20) Vaccination a Medical Fallacy Alexander Wilder, MD 1879 21) The Dream & Lie of Louis Pasteur Originally Pasteur: Plagiarist, Imposter R.B. Pearson 1942 22) The Vaccination Problem Joseph Swan 1936 23) The Fallacy of Vaccination John Pitcairn, President of the Anti-Vaccination League of America 1911 24) The Case Against Vaccination Walter Hadwen, JP, MD, LRCP, MRCS, LSA 1896 25) A Catalogue of Anti-Vaccination Literature The London Society for the Abolition of Compulsory Vaccination 114 Victoria Street, Westminster 1882, 2018 Never Vaccinate Your Child Lessons from Parents, Doctors, Scientists, Media, and HISTORY Trung Nguyen June 2018