Fall 2008 - The Johns Hopkins University Press

Ethical Issuesin Rural Health Careedited by Craig M. Klugman and Pamela M. DalinisThis volume initiates a much-needed conversation aboutthe ethical and policy concerns facing health care providersin the rural United States. Although 21 percent of thepopulation lives in rural areas, only 11 percent of physicianspractice there. What challenges do health care workers facein remote locations? What are the differences between ruraland urban health care practices? What particular ethical issuesarise in treating residents of small communities? Craig M.Klugman and Pamela M. Dalinis gather philosophers, lawyers,physicians, nurses, and researchers to discuss these andother questions, offering a multidisciplinary overview ofrural health care in the United States.Rural practitioners often practice within small, tight-knitcommunities, socializing with their patients outside the examinationroom. The residents are more likely to have limitedfinances and lack health insurance. Physicians may haveinsufficient resources to treat their patients, who often haveto travel great distances just to see a doctor.The first part of the book analyzes the differences betweenrural and urban cultures and discusses the difficulties intreating patients in rural settings. The second part featuresthe personal narratives of rural health care providers, whoshare their experiences and insights. The last part introducesunique ethical challenges facing rural health care providersand proposes innovative solutions to those problems.This volume is a useful resource for bioethicists, membersof rural bioethics committees and networks, policy makers,teachers of health care providers, and rural practitionersthemselves.“This volume elucidates a wide range of ethical issues and the authorsprovide helpful strategies for practice and policy.”—Ruth B. Purtilo, Massachusetts General Hospital Instituteof Health ProfessionsCraig M. KlugmaN is an associate professor of bioethics at theUniversity of Nevada, Reno. Pamela M. Dalinis is a bioethicsconsultant and Director of Education at Midwest Palliativeand Hospice CareCenter.Philosophical Issuesin PsychiatryExplanation, Phenomenology, and Nosologyedited by Kenneth S. Kendler, M.D.,and Josef Parnas, M.D., Dr.Med.Sci.This multidisciplinary collection explores three key conceptsunderpinning psychiatry—explanation, phenomenology,and nosology—and their continuing relevance in an age ofneuroimaging and genetic analysis.An introduction by Kenneth S. Kendler lays out the philosophicalgrounding of psychiatric practice. The first sectionaddresses the concept of explanation, from the difficultiesin describing complex behavior to the categorization ofpsychological and biological causality. In the second section,contributors discuss experience, including the complex andvexing issue of how self-agency and free will affect mentalhealth. The third and final section examines the organizationaldifficulties in psychiatric nosology and the instabilityof the existing diagnostic system. Each chapter has both anintroduction by the editors and a concluding comment byanother of the book’s contributors.“Few books on psychiatry explore with seriousness and clarity the difficultproblems of explanation, scientific description, and causality.This one does. The introductions are like having an articulate and patientprofessor at your shoulder. The material is discussed by first-ratepeople in their fields, and the commentaries prevent the discussionfrom becoming static or predictable. I hope this sophisticated bookwill be read widely and considered carefully.”—John Z. Sadler, M.D., editor of Descriptions andPrescriptions: Values, Mental Disorders, and the DSMsKenneth S. Kendler, M.D., is the Rachel Brown Banks DistinguishedProfessor of Psychiatry at the Medical Collegeof Virginia, where he is also a professor of human geneticsand the director of the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric andBehavioral Genetics. He is the author of, most recently, Genes,Environment, and Psychopathology. Josef Parnas, M.D., Dr.Med.Sci., is a professor of psychiatry and the consultant medicaldirector for the Department of Psychiatry at CopenhagenUniversity. He is also the codirector of the National DanishResearch Foundation’s Center for Subjectivity Research.December 288 pages 6 x 9 2 illustrations978-0-8018-9045-1 0-8018-9045-4 $50.00(s) / £27.00 hcMedical EthicsNovember 416 pages 6 x 9 5 halftones, 10 line drawings978-0-8018-8983-7 0-8018-8983-9 $60.00(s) / £32.00 hcPsychiatryTHE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS www.press.jhu.edu 50