Literary accounts of traumatic events can be more informative and insightful than personal testimonials. In particular, reference to works of literature can give us a more vivid sense of what it is like to receive a devastating diagnosis. In turn this can lead us to question some common assumptions about the nature of autonomy, particularly for patients in these circumstances. The literature of...

Since October of 1987, Jacques Mulnard has been Professor Emeritus of the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of the Universite Libre de Bruxelles. He arrived as a student in 1939 and achieved a brilliant record in his medical studies. The difficult circumstances of the war were soon to reveal his attachment to his Institution and his exceptional qualities as a pedagogue and humanist. During his t...

behind the Pechora river, it seemed like a dream, totally divorced from reality. I was one of the first in the hospital to whom this historic message was delivered. I was called to the KGB office in the hospital, where the officer in charge proclaimed my freedom in a ceremonial way. He suggested that I remain in Russia as a free doctor; I would be offered a good position owing to my experience ...

The children and grandchildren ofsurvivors may also be affected We have known for centuries that traumatic events, physical or mental, have a profound and often lasting effect on the personality. Yet somehow we keep forgetting this phenomenon: it has been rediscovered, redescribed, and renamed by each generation. War reminds us forcibly of the facts. In the past 100 years, the immediate impact ...

The effects of insulin on the ability of the specific intracellular cAMP-dependent protein kinase antagonist, the Rp diastereomer of adenosine cyclic 3',5'-phosphorothioate, to inhibit glycogenolysis induced by the Sp diastereomer was studied in hepatocytes isolated from fed rats. Addition of the cAMP agonist, (Sp)-cAMPS, to hepatocytes resulted in a concentration-dependent increase in glycogen...

Living conditions in concentration camps were harsh and often inhumane, leading many prisoners to commit suicide. We have reviewed this topic in Nazi concentration camps (KL), Soviet special camps, and gulags, providing some preliminary data for our research. Data show that the incidence of suicide in Nazi KL could be up to 30 times higher than the general population and was also much higher th...