Revealing the Difference: Between Conflict Mediation and Law Enforcement—Living and Working Together as a Conceptual and Methodological Turning Point to Activate Transformation in a Juvenile Criminal Mediation Service

This article aims at proposing the construct of living and working together in organizations as an interpretation and tool proposed in a Juvenile Criminal Mediation Service, in order to highlight how important it was as a turning point in activating the working group's reflexive function as far as their sense of belonging, otherness, culture of diversity, and work subject matter are concerned and start an important transformation process in the very service delivery. Our proposal finds its roots in a follow-up experience regarding the aforementioned service, which has been taking place for almost three years. It was structured in three different phases: a research phase evaluating process and results of the activity that was carried out; a phase of monitoring the mediation practice; a research-action phase in a clinical perspective on the working group's operating mode. The leverage of living and working together in organizations is specifically proposed as far as this last working phase is concerned, lasting approximately ten months.     

Religious Values in Clinical Practice are Here to Stay

Research to date has shown that health professionals often practice according to personal values, including values based on faith, and that these values impact medicine in multiple ways. While some influence of personal values are inevitable, awareness of values is important so as to sustain beneficial practice without conflicting with the values of the patient. Detecting when own personal values, whether based on a theistic or atheistic worldview, are at work, is a daily challenge in clinical practice. Simultaneously ethical guidelines of tone-setting medical associations like American Medical Association, the British General Medical Council and Australian Medical Association have been updated to encompass physicians’ right to practice medicine in accord with deeply held beliefs. Framed by this context, we discuss the concept of value-neutrality and value-based medical practice of physicians from both a cultural and ethical perspective, and reach the conclusion that the concept of a completely value-neutral physician, free from influence of personal values and filtering out value-laden information when talking to patients, is simply an unrealistic ideal in light of existing evidence. Still we have no reason to suspect that personal values, whether religious, spiritual, atheistic or agnostic, should hinder physicians from delivering professional and patient-centered care.

     

Can the medical resonance therapy music affect autonomous innervation of cerebral arteries?

The purpose of this investigation was to study the effects of Medical Resonance Therapy Music (MRT-Music) upon autonomous innervation of cerebral arteries by examining slow spontaneous oscillations of cerebral blood flow (SSO) using transcranial Doppler ultrasound (TCD). TCD detects SSO with 3–9 cycles per minute (M-waves) and 0.5–2 cycles per minute (B-waves). The SSO are caused by rhythmic diameter changes of the medium and small cerebral arteries. Six patients aged 24–65 years suffering from tension headache were treated with MRT-Music. Twelve additional patients were examined with TCD only to register SSO for further spectral analysis. After fast Fourier transformation four groups of peaks were registered on the SSO spectra, divided into four rhythms: A. 0.0–0.02 Hz, B. 0.02–0.033 Hz, C. 0.06–0.09 Hz, D. 0.09–0.15 Hz and an intermediate diapason of 0.034–0.059 Hz. Spectral analysis of the SSO showed changes between initial and final amplitude peaks in all patients. In contrast to A-, B-and D-rhythms, the reduction of peaks in the C-diapason was statistically significant (31–60%, P 3D0.04, CI 3D95%) for patients treated with MRT-Music. All patients treated with the MRT-Music reported a relief of headache while and after treatment.     

Clinical application of medical resonance therapy music in high-risk pregnancies

Music is an ancient method for healing. In the year 550 B.C., Pythagoras from Greece developed a concept for the use of music in medicine, esteeming music higher than many other medical treatments. The Medical Resonance Therapy Music (MRT-Music) of the German classical composer and musicologist Peter Huebner is built on this concept of Pythagorean music medicine. Its therapeutic effect may be best explained by the natural phenomenon of resonance between the harmony laws of the microcosm of music and the biological laws of the body. Results received after application of MRT-Music indicate multiple positive effects on the organism of pregnant women both with a healthy pregnancy as with a pathologic one, reducing the rate of premature births very effectively. Furthermore, MRT-Music came out to be an effective method in the complex therapy of late gestoses and a nearly irreplaceable method for preoperative preparation of pregnant woman for caesarean section. It demonstrated a powerful anti-stress effect and allowd to reduce the amount of administered pain-killers to pregnant women by the factor 1.5 to 2.0 thus reducing the negative pharmacological load to the foetus. It furthermore reduced labour time and shortened hospital stay. It helped to create optimal conditions for the course of pregnancy and heightened pain sensitivity threshold by means of improving the functional, hormonal, and psycho-emotional conditions of pregnant and lying-in women. Thus, the labour process became more natural, the delivery non-traumatic, and motherhood more happy and safe.     

Suicidology: A Look Backward and Ahead

Using the metaphor of “a long run’ to describe our progress in suicidology, the author looks back to discuss important concepts that have become well established, such as clues to suicide, ambivalence, crisis services, suicide consultations, and psychological autopsies. An example is the psychological autopsy of Marilyn Monroe. Follow-up studies of crisis center clients have indicated that chronically suicidal clients are at the greatest risk of suicide. Recommendations for the long-term treatment of such patients are provided. Research on youth suicide is reported. Finally, the author looks ahead toward new developments in training and treatment.     

Drug Ingestions in Children 10–14 Years Old: An Old Problem Revisited

To determine changes in rates of drug ingestions in 10–14 year old children in our country, a retrospective chart review of 10–14 year olds hospitalized for drug ingestion between 1993–1995 and 2000–2004 was performed. Odds ratios and Chi‐square were used for analyses. From 1993–1995 there were 92.8 ingestions/100,000 children/year; from 2000–2004 there were 63.3 ingestions/100,000 children/year. More males ingested in 2000–2004 than 1993–1995 (26.3% vs. 14.2% O.R. 2.15 [1.19, 3.92]). More patients took psychiatric medications in 2000–2004 than 1993–1995 (38.9% vs. 27.0%, O.R. 1.72 [1.06, 2.80]). More patients ingested SSRIs in 2000–2004 than 1993–1995; fewer ingested tricyclics. Hospitalization rates for drug ingestions have decreased. There has been a change in drug ingested, and more males are ingesting drugs.