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Special Subjects

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
- Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Common Imaging Tests
Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)
Recreational Drugs and Intoxicants
Hospital Care
Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance
- Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance
Limb Prosthetics

Medical Decision Making
Medicinal Herbs and Nutraceuticals
Nonspecific Symptoms
The Science of Medicine and Clinical Trials
Surgery
- Surgery
Tobacco Use
- Smoking
- Smoking Cessation
Travel and Health

Some medical topics do not fit easily into a category. Fatigue and generalized weight loss are nonspecific symptoms that could be a manifestation of a number of diseases that span many specialties. In addition, people with chronic fatigue syndrome or idiopathic environmental intolerance are often not treated by doctors specializing in a specific organ system. This section provides a home for topics that do not fit easily elsewhere.

Special SubjectsSections (A-Z)

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Chronic fatigue syndrome refers to long-standing severe and disabling fatigue without a proven physical or psychologic cause and without objective abnormalities found on physical examination or laboratory testing.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Common Imaging Tests

Imaging tests provide a picture of the body’s interior—of the whole body or part of it. Imaging helps doctors diagnose a disorder, determine how severe the disorder is, and monitor people after the disorder is diagnosed. Most imaging tests are painless, relatively safe, and noninvasive (that is, they do not require an incision in the skin or the insertion of an instrument into the body).

Overview of Imaging Tests
Angiography
Computed Tomography (CT)
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
Plain X-Rays
Radionuclide Scanning
Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
Ultrasonography

Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) includes a variety of healing approaches and therapies that are taken from around the world and that historically have not been included in conventional Western medicine. Many aspects of CAM are rooted in ancient, indigenous systems of healing, such as those of China, India, Tibet, Africa, and the Americas. Many of these treatments and health care practices are popular, and now some are used in hospitals and are reimbursed by insurance companies. Acupuncture and some chiropractic treatments are examples. Because interest in and use of CAM are increasing, more and more medical schools are including information about CAM treatments, such as acupuncture, herbal medicine, chiropractic treatments, and homeopathy.

Overview of Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Whole Medical Systems
Mind-Body Techniques
Biologically Based Therapies
Manipulative and Body-Based Therapies
Energy Therapies

Hospital Care

Hospitals provide extensive resources and expertise that enable doctors to rapidly diagnose and treat a wide range of diseases.

Being Admitted to the Hospital
Hospital Care Team Members
During a Hospital Day
Special Care Units
Legal Decisions
Problems Due to Hospitalization
Hospital-Acquired Infections
Problems Due to Bed Rest
Undernutrition Due to Hospitalization
Confusion and Mental Decline Due to Hospitalization
Incontinence Due to Hospitalization
Inability to Urinate Due to Hospitalization
Falls Due to Hospitalization
Lack of Sleep Due to Hospitalization
Errors in Hospital Care
Being Discharged From the Hospital

Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance

Idiopathic environmental intolerance seems to be triggered by exposure to low levels of several identifiable or unidentifiable substances commonly present in the environment.

Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance

Limb Prosthetics

A prosthesis is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part.

Overview of Limb Prosthetics
Prosthetic Parts
Options for Limb Prostheses
Preparing to Use a Prosthesis
Fitting the Prosthesis
Skin Care of the Residual Limb
Swelling of the Residual Limb
Loss of Suction
Pain in the Residual Limb

Medical Decision Making

People and their doctors must make many decisions about medical issues. People must decide whether and when to see a doctor . Doctors must decide what to advise people to do in order to stay well or become well. They both must make decisions about which tests, if any, should be done and which treatment, if any, should be done.

Overview of Medical Decision Making
Medical Testing Decisions
Medical Treatment Decisions

Medicinal Herbs and Nutraceuticals

Medicinal herbs are plant parts, sometimes ground, extracted, or otherwise prepared, used for health benefits. Nutraceuticals , a more recent and more general term, are a group of natural substances that includes certain herbs and such products as cholesterol-lowering margarines and psyllium-fortified products that are used as dietary supplements and regulated as foods.

Overview of Medicinal Herbs and Nutraceuticals
Black Cohosh
Chamomile
Chondroitin Sulfate
Chromium
Coenzyme Q10
Cranberry
Creatine
Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA)
Echinacea
Feverfew
Fish Oil
Garlic
Ginger
Ginkgo
Ginseng
Glucosamine
Goldenseal
Green Tea
Kava
Licorice
Melatonin
Milk Thistle
S -Adenosyl- L -Methionine (SAMe)
Saw Palmetto
St. John’s Wort
Valerian
Zinc

Nonspecific Symptoms

Many people have nonspecific symptoms, such as fatigue and involuntary weight loss. Other nonspecific symptoms include fever (see Fever in Adults ), nausea (see Nausea and Vomiting in Adults ), and weakness (see Weakness ).

Introduction to Nonspecific Symptoms
Fatigue
Involuntary Weight Loss

Recreational Drugs and Intoxicants

Drugs are an integral part of everyday life for many people—legitimately and illegitmately—and drug use among adolescents remains high (see Substance Use and Abuse in Adolescents ).

Overview of Substance-Related Disorders
Alcohol
Amphetamines
Anabolic Steroids
Antianxiety and Sedative Drugs
Cocaine
Gamma Hydroxybutyrate
Hallucinogens
Ketamine
Marijuana
Opioids
Phencyclidine
Solvent Inhalants

Surgery

Surgery is the term traditionally used to describe procedures (called surgical procedures) that involve manually cutting or stitching tissue to treat diseases, injuries, or deformities. However, advances in surgical techniques have made the definition more complicated. Sometimes lasers, radiation, or other techniques (other than scalpels) are used to cut tissue, and wounds may be closed without stitches.

Surgery

The Science of Medicine and Clinical Trials

People expect doctors to use treatments that work well and to stop using those that do not. However, it is often difficult for doctors and other scientists to tell which treatments work. Making this distinction is part of the science of medicine and usually involves studying the effects of treatments in clinical trials.

Introduction to the Science of Medicine and Clinical Trials
The Science of Medicine
What Participants Need to Know About Clinical Trials

Tobacco Use

Nicotine is the substance in tobacco (present in cigarettes, cigars, and pipe and chewing tobacco) that users become dependent on. It is also the active ingredient in some drug products used to help people quit smoking.

Smoking
Smoking Cessation

Travel and Health

Travel preparation is crucial, even for healthy people. Proper preparations are inexpensive relative to the costs of getting sick or injured while away from home.

Travel Preparations
Specific Medical Conditions and Travel
Problems in Transit
Problems at the Destination
Problems After Travel

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Also of Interest

Test your knowledge

Many forms of alternative medicine have not undergone rigorous scientific evaluation. However, a lack of scientific studies does not mean that a therapy is ineffective. Barriers to doing research on CAM therapies include all EXCEPT which of the following?

Medical researchers lack interest in CAM therapies. CAM therapies are thought to be unsafe. Research funds are limited. Applying conventional research methods to studying alternative therapies is difficult.