Medical intervention, responses

Wildes, Kevin W. M. Medicalization and Social Ills. America, vol. 180, April 3, 1999, p. 16. Argues that treating firearms misuse as a disease (akin to alcoholism) will fail. Such an approach treats people as passive victims of a condition beyond their control, requiring medical intervention. People are then unlikely to take responsibility for their actions or develop a robust ability to cope with life s challenges. 

An additional problem with the DSM-IV criteria is the short duration. In earlier nosologies (e.g., Washington University criteria), a minimum of 4 weeks was required. In double-blind, placebo-controlled trials, a duration of less than 3 months is often associated with a higher placebo response rate. Thus, the longer an episode, the greater the clinician s confidence that a patient will need and will respond to medical intervention. 

Stimulus-response specificity is a concept describing conditions where a very specific response can be predicted with tremendous regularity when a stimulus is applied. One example would be that an electrical shock to muscle tissue evokes a contraction. This model is appropriate for some types of medical interventions. For example, for acute cardiac and respiratory arrest, the techniques of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can be used with most victims, regardless of their age, socioeconomic status, sex, or religious beliefs. When there is an obstructed airway, performing an emergency tracheotomy is appropriate for victims regardless of their emotional status, personality style, or level of psychosocial maturity. Likewise, some medications have fairly universal effects on all people for instance, sodium pentothal produces unconsciousness (Deckert 1985). 

As a form of medical intervention, psychopharmacology is considered a relatively new intervention with its roots planted only in the last 40 to 4S years. There is so much new information regarding medications, and this needs to be combined with the individual or unique responses that can occur with use. Medication trials cannot cover every side effect a client might experience. For example, a client can have a serious reaction to a drug when taken with another drug that has never occurred in the medication trials before (Henkel, 1998). Even though trials of medications are conducted and monitored by the FDA, it is long after the medication has been used on the market that additional or true effects are known. As will be discussed later in this text, the clinical trials that are used to... 

If human emotions arise partly in response to hormonal levels, what effect would you expect there to be to periodic hormonal supplementation (such as insulin injections, thyroxine pills, or human growth hormone injections) as part of medical intervention ... 

For purposes of this report, we differentiate four levels of medical intervention, primarily on the basis of proximity to the precipitating event or initial victims. Response to a distinct, immediately recognizable terrorist incident (as opposed to a covert release of an agent whose effects would not be apparent for hours or days) would, in most instances, be initiated by law enforcement or fire and rescue personnel, followed at some point by a hazardous materials (Hazmat) team and emergency medical technicians. This is the group referred to in Table 1-1 as "Local Responders." In the same table, "Initial Treatment Facilities" refers to the fixed-site medical facilities to which victims might initially be transported (or transport themselves) or that might initially be called upon for assistance by victims or personnel on the scene. Under "State" in the table, we... 

General Provide appropriate emergency response such as fire fighting, evacuation, medical intervention... 

Most CWAs reach their physiological targets at toxic levels to cause serious illness and even fatality in only minutes after exposure. The medical intervention in this case is to reverse the toxic action at the target site immediately or treat the physiological response (symptoms) as soon as possible. Another possibility is that some CWAs may exert their toxic effects more slowly and not... 

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