Mental health is a tricky branch of medicine – psychiatrists deal with significant diagnostic and research challenges, and some patients struggle with the stigma they may face socially due to having a mental disorder. In a bid to educate the public about psychiatric conditions, Mental Health Awareness Week, which this year runs from 13th–19th May, is focusing on raising awareness about how exercise can positively affect mental health. In fact, there is increasing focus on modifying key lifestyle factors as primary prevention strategies for mental health disorders, and in a recent opinion article published in BMC Medicine, Felice Jacka and colleagues argue that depression and anxiety should be ranked amongst prevalent …

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Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), commonly known as “lupus”, is an autoimmune disease that can affect any of the body’s organs or tissues. The symptoms of SLE are very diverse, ranging from skin rashes to kidney failure, and patients experience flares followed by periods of remission. Steroids are commonly used to treat SLE flares, but as long-term use leads to serious side effects, newer treatments aim to reduce or stop steroid use altogether. In a review article published in BMC Medicine, David D’Cruz and colleagues from St Thomas’ Lupus Trust review the novel therapies in clinical development for SLE treatment. The authors discuss how conventional treatments are not appropriate for all patients due …

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Autoimmune diseases occur due to chronic stimulation of the immune system, leading the body to attack its own healthy tissues and organs. A wide variety of conditions, such as Type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and celiac disease, are classified under this disorder. In addition, many diseases of unknown etiology are also believed to be of autoimmune origin, such as scleroderma and systemic lupus erythmatosous. However, the complex immunopathogenesis makes it difficult to effectively treat and manage many of the diseases. In some cases, there is controversy over the classification – for example at the CORA 2013 congress in Budapest last week, an hour-long debate moderated by Marco Matucci-Cerinic on the best way to treat scleroderma …

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Evidence-based medicine (EBM) aims to assess the strength of proof behind medical interventions in terms of risks and benefits, and therefore can be used to inform clinical decision making on both an individual and a population basis. As such, EBM is crucial in maintaining quality medical care and ensuring good clinical outcomes. Many parties are involved in EBM. Firstly, researchers and publishers are involved in the conduct and dissemination of medical evidence. Then, policy makers and clinicians are responsible for the eventual implementation of changes in healthcare decisions that may occur.

This week, BMC Medicine attended the Evidence Live 2013 conference in Oxford, held on the 25th and 26th of March. Attracting around 1000 delegates, the conference provided …

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Recent times have seen important advances in open access publishing. Earlier this month, the Research Councils UK (RCUK) announced their revised open access policy, which comes into effect from April 1st 2013, and states that all RCUK-funded research must be published open access. While the RCUK support both green and gold open access options, they strongly encourage the gold model, as recommended by the Finch Report on expanding access to research findings.

Last week BMC Medicine attended a panel discussion on open access as part of the Cambridge Science Festival, chaired by Prof John Naughton, which discussed this significant development. Cameron Neylon, Advocacy Director at PLOS, kicked off discussions by describing the …

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Common psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders are mainly treated using medications that modify the activity of monoamine neurotransmitter systems. New lines of pharmacological therapeutics for some of these disorders are emerging that target pathophysiological pathways, including inflammation, circadian and sleep patterns. Interestingly, sleep disorders are frequently associated with mental health particularly depression, whereas motor symptoms characterize Parkinson’s disease, a progressive neurodegenerative disease showing loss of dopaminergic neurons. Other progressive diseases such as neuromuscular diseases are more difficult to diagnose and quantify. These topics are highlighted in some recently published articles in BMC Medicine that we discuss below.

On the topic of therapies, Ian Hickie and colleagues recommend that sleep-wake cycles and circadian systems are …

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BMC Medicine recently attended the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH 2013) conference on global health, which took place in Washington D.C. from the 14th-16th March. Around 1400 delegates participated, with a broad range of expertise, such as those involved in general medicine, surgery, policy making, and governance, reflecting the broad scope of this field.

The conference was particularly exciting because of the recently published Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 (GBD 2010) – a series of articles on how the international disease burden has changed since 1990. Although people are living longer due to decreases in the burden of infectious diseases and malnutrition, non-communicable diseases, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease, are on the …

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Care of vulnerable populations constitutes a sizeable proportion of those in need of medical resources, and there exists considerable disparity between those who can, and can’t afford  access to medical services.  Although these issues have always existed, concerns over global health and health inequities have been emphasized over recent years. For instance, few will forget the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy in November 2012, where much of the focus was on the U.S., despite the fact that the devastation caused by the hurricane was far more severe in Haiti. As a country that is much more restricted in terms of resources, the impact on livelihood and medical facilities was far greater to the residents of this area.

Many …

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