Table of Contents | August 2009

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Making the "Right" Health Care Decisions: Why Values Matter.

In this month's Editorial the PLoS Medicine editors question the nature and effects of shared decision-making on patient care and subsequent treatment. The editors discuss the criteria for when shared decisions between patient and health care provider should be made, how different forms of data presentation can deepen a patient's understanding of possible treatment options, and how certain presentations can also prove unfairly persuasive. Linking to two research articles published this month in PLoS Medicine, both by Cheryl Carling and colleagues (e1000134 and e1000140), the editorial analyzes the best ways for health care providers to be as informative as possible, while maintaining objectivity and a respect for patients' values prior to treatment.

Image Credit: Marco Bellucci at flickr.com

Editorial

Making the “Right” Health Care Decisions: Why Values Matter

The PLoS Medicine Debate

Can We Systematically Review Studies That Evaluate Complex Interventions?

Sasha Shepperd, Simon Lewin, Sharon Straus, Mike Clarke, Martin P. Eccles, Ray Fitzpatrick, Geoff Wong, Aziz Sheikh

Essays

Consequences of Ongoing Civil Conflict in Somalia: Evidence for Public Health Responses

Debarati Guha-Sapir, Ruwan Ratnayake

Evaluating eHealth Interventions: The Need for Continuous Systemic Evaluation

Lorraine Catwell, Aziz Sheikh

Perspectives

Solar Water Disinfection in Household Settings: Hype or Hope?

Zulfiqar A. Bhutta

Prolonged Grief Disorder: A Problem for the Past, the Present, and the Future

Stephen Workman

Facing Up to Unpalatable Evidence for the Sake of Our Patients

Paul E. Mullen

Mexico's Health System: More Comprehensive Reform Needed

Jason Lakin

Policy Forum

Twenty-Five Years of Convoluted Health Reforms in Mexico

Núria Homedes, Antonio Ugalde

Student Forum

The Dawning Era of Personalized Medicine Exposes a Gap in Medical Education

Keyan Salari

Research Articles

Cross-National Analysis of the Associations among Mental Disorders and Suicidal Behavior: Findings from the WHO World Mental Health Surveys

Matthew K. Nock, Irving Hwang, Nancy Sampson, Ronald C. Kessler, Matthias Angermeyer, Annette Beautrais, Guilherme Borges, Evelyn Bromet, Ronny Bruffaerts, Giovanni de Girolamo, Ron de Graaf, Silvia Florescu, Oye Gureje, Josep Maria Haro, Chiyi Hu, Yueqin Huang, Elie G. Karam, Norito Kawakami, Viviane Kovess, Daphna Levinson, Jose Posada-Villa, Rajesh Sagar, Toma Tomov, Maria Carmen Viana, David R. Williams

Sleep-Disordered Breathing and Mortality: A Prospective Cohort Study

Naresh M. Punjabi, Brian S. Caffo, James L. Goodwin, Daniel J. Gottlieb, Anne B. Newman, George T. O'Connor, David M. Rapoport, Susan Redline, Helaine E. Resnick, John A. Robbins, Eyal Shahar, Mark L. Unruh, Jonathan M. Samet

Solar Drinking Water Disinfection (SODIS) to Reduce Childhood Diarrhoea in Rural Bolivia: A Cluster-Randomized, Controlled Trial

Daniel Mäusezahl, Andri Christen, Gonzalo Duran Pacheco, Fidel Alvarez Tellez, Mercedes Iriarte, Maria E. Zapata, Myriam Cevallos, Jan Hattendorf, Monica Daigl Cattaneo, Benjamin Arnold, Thomas A. Smith, John M. Colford Jr

The Effect of Alternative Summary Statistics for Communicating Risk Reduction on Decisions about Taking Statins: A Randomized Trial

Cheryl L. L. Carling, Doris Tove Kristoffersen, Victor M. Montori, Jeph Herrin, Holger J. Schünemann, Shaun Treweek, Elie A. Akl, Andrew D. Oxman

The Effect of Alternative Graphical Displays Used to Present the Benefits of Antibiotics for Sore Throat on Decisions about Whether to Seek Treatment: A Randomized Trial

Cheryl L. L. Carling, Doris Tove Kristoffersen, Signe Flottorp, Atle Fretheim, Andrew D. Oxman, Holger J. Schünemann, Elie A. Akl, Jeph Herrin, Thomas D. MacKenzie, Victor M. Montori

Prolonged Grief Disorder: Psychometric Validation of Criteria Proposed for DSM-V and ICD-11

Holly G. Prigerson, Mardi J. Horowitz, Selby C. Jacobs, Colin M. Parkes, Mihaela Aslan, Karl Goodkin, Beverley Raphael, Samuel J. Marwit, Camille Wortman, Robert A. Neimeyer, George Bonanno, Susan D. Block, David Kissane, Paul Boelen, Andreas Maercker, Brett T. Litz, Jeffrey G. Johnson, Michael B. First, Paul K. Maciejewski

Schizophrenia and Violence: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Seena Fazel, Gautam Gulati, Louise Linsell, John R. Geddes, Martin Grann

Decreased Bone Mineral Density in Adults Born with Very Low Birth Weight: A Cohort Study

Petteri Hovi, Sture Andersson, Anna-Liisa Järvenpää, Johan G. Eriksson, Sonja Strang-Karlsson, Eero Kajantie, Outi Mäkitie