Recommendations for the Treatment of Hypochondriac Patients

Hypochondriasis is a debilitating condition in which patients are persistently preoccupied with the possibility of being seriously ill. Its is a costly problem for the health care system whose treatment has not received systematic attention until recently. Although based on few controlled studies, results indicated that various brief cognitive-behavioral techniques produce significant changes in illness fears and attitudes. A list of therapeutic questions that require further study is presented and some indications for both therapists and patients are given.     

The Role of Creativity in Marriage and Family Therapy Practice: A National Online Study

The purpose of this study, using an online methodology, was to investigate therapists' perceptions of the role of creativity in couples' and family therapy. Along with completing a quantitative measure assessing creativity in their work, participants responded to four open-ended questions which addressed the meaning of creativity, characteristics of a creative family therapist, some creative interventions they have used with couples and families, and barriers to their own creativity as a family therapist. A total of 142 marriage and family therapists in 36 states in the United States participated. The findings shed light on the unique importance of creativity in couples and family treatment.     

Sehen, Sichtbarkeit und empirische Forschung

Vision, Visibility, and Empirical Research. In general, natural scientists use the concept of observation in a liberal way: they talk of observing electrons, DNA, or distant quasars. Several philosophers of science have recently argued for a similar use of the concept of observation: they have claimed that the important aspects of scientific research can only be properly reconstructed in accordance with how this term is actually used in science. With reference to an example from astronomy, I point out that the proposed generalisation of the concept of observation leads to undesirable consequences. I argue that a differentiated conceptual framework is required in order to give an adequate account of the varieties of scientific experience. Thus, the appropriate starting point for distinguishing these various scientific research practices should not be the generalised scientific conception of observation, but instead distinctly different uses of the term observation drawn from ordinary language. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A History of the Association of Medical School Psychologists

While psychologists have been active faculty members in medical schools for over 85 years, they lacked organization on the national level until 1981. This history traces the background of psychology's involvement in medical schools, landmark events that affected the discipline, and progress since formal organization has occurred. Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost     

Religiousness, Health, and Health Behavior in Public-Use Data of the National Center for Health Statistics

Studies of religiousness and health-related variables in large, population-based cross-sectional or, preferably, longitudinal studies, which are often prohibitively expensive, are important to complement findings from the more commonly performed studies. Inadequately known among social science researchers, the national health surveys of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) offer large, high-quality data sets to the public at no or nominal cost and hence offer important opportunities for research in the area of religion and health, religion and reproductive behavior, sociology of religion and psychology of religion. This report provides an overview of the data sets and a bibliography of prior research using these data, which is intended to suggest how the data of NCHS may be further exploited by researchers of religiousness and health.

PROMPTING ONE LOW-FAT,HIGH-FIBER SELECTION IN A FAST-FOOD RESTAURANT

Evidence increasingly links a high-fat, low-fiber diet to coronary heart disease and certain site cancers, indicating a need for large-scale dietary change. Studies showing the effectiveness of particular procedures in specific settings are important at this point. The present study, using an A-B-A-B design and sales data from computerized cash registers, replicated and extended previous work by showing that inexpensive prompts (i.e., signs and fliers) in a national fast-food restaurant could increase the sales of salads, a low-fat, high-fiber menu selection. Suggestions also are made pertinent to more widespread use of the procedures.     

新加坡医疗保障体系的特点及对我国的启示

新加坡的卫生状况在国际上处于较高水平,得到了世界卫生组织的较好评价,本文主要介绍了新加坡医疗保障体系在医疗费用的分担、体系的完善、资金的筹集方式和报销制度等方面的特点,并结合我国的具体国情和医疗保障体系的现状,总结了其对我国医疗保障体系建立和完善的几点启示。     

目前国内常用心理健康量表的回顾与反思

对国内近10多年来常被用于评鉴心理健康的7大类量表的分析结果表明,我国常用心理健康评估工具具有逐年增加、从单纯引进转向创造性地自编、自编量表的内容从学习与人格向多领域延伸、自编量表的方法从不完全到完全的特点。已编制出一些信效度较高的量表,但是仍存在一些问题。存在的主要问题是量表的信效度较低、自编量表有低水平重复现象、测量积极心理的量表少。     

论丹尼尔斯医疗保健公正理论

诺曼·丹尼尔斯将罗尔斯的正义理论应用到医疗资源分配公正领域,他的理论认为医疗保健的道德重要性就在于它保护正常的功能从而保护机会,平等机会不仅提供医疗保健权利的基础,它也帮助我们确定这个权利的承诺限度。此外我们应该依靠公平的程序达到医疗保健公正的分配。     

拉丁美洲国家医疗保障制度探析

拉丁美洲国家的经济发展水平较高,公共健康开支和私人健康开支也比较高,医疗保障制度覆盖面较大,财政的健康开支公平性较高。但是国别之间,健康开支水平与经济发展水平之间以及健康开支水平与财政负担的公平性之间缺乏紧密的联系。这说明,社会医疗保险制度模式、收入差距等因素制约了医疗保障制度的作用的发挥和财政负担公平性的实现。