[.ca] Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine (ISBN 0756766389)

Why things fall apart:
Stunning history of medicine for the last half of the last century. Convincing exposition as to why it is all going to fall apart. Must for scientists, doctors, academics, health policy makers

The rise and fall of modern medicine:
This is a brilliant book and I am amazed that this is the first review. It is a 'tour de force'. It brings together many threads of the great advances of modern medicine post war and chronicles how the golden age petered out eg the pharmacological revolution slowed rapidly particularly post thalidimide. It explores the fallacies and cheating which gave us the Social Theory ie ill health is all our own fault because of what we eat - we shouldn't eat so many lamb chops or choccie bikkies - and the unfulfilled expectations of genetics and its possible limited application in medicine. It is both scholarly and readable as well as becoming quite compelling. Even if the bloke is a journalist this is stunning stuff. I am still searching for an effective contrary view.

Provocative and infuriating survey:
The Telegraph's medical columnist claims that medicine's golden age was from 1945 to 1980, due to the chance discovery of drugs, advances in clinical science and innovative technology. He believes that it is now exhausted, and laments that the vacuum is being filled by what he thinks are the dead ends of New Genetics, epidemiology and social medicine. It is untimely to write off genetics when the Human Genome Project offers such exciting possibilities. He calls for more research into the causes of disease, and rightly rejects idealist explanations. Doctors used to think that peptic ulcers were due to 'stress' or 'personality', but in 1984, Barry Marshall, a young Australian doctor, identified a type of bacterium that triggered them. A seven-day course of antibiotics was the cure. The same organism caused two-thirds of stomach cancer cases. In 1986, Thomas Grayston discovered that the bacterium chlamydia caused heart disease. Perhaps as yet undiscovered bacteria cause arthritis, schizophrenia, leukaemia, MS, diabetes and ME. He has a brilliant chapter on how the use of new drugs refuted Freudianism, as chlorpromazine effectively relieved schizophrenia's symptoms, lithium mania's, prozac depression's and valium anxiety's. Le Fanu shows that the influential historian of medicine Thomas McKeown wrongly denied doctors the credit for tuberculosis's decline. Doctors' seclusion of TB patients in sanatoria dramatically reduced the infection's incidence. He argues against social medicine, rejecting all social and economic explanations of illness. But lifestyle changes - losing weight, improving diet and exercising more - do prevent diabetes and promote health and well-being (British Medical Journal, 14 July 2001, page 63.) He claims that medicine has run its course. We have seen the misanthropic idea of the end of history, of politics, of industry and of class. Now Le Fanu pronounces the end of medicine. This is a provocative and infuriating book, full of ideas and prejudices. We need the tests of practice to see what he has got right.

Important for any serious medical collection:
Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine provides an important survey of the major breakthroughs in modern medicine from 1945 to the 1970s, outlining medical process and barriers to achieving goals. From major battles won against illness and treatments of chronic diseases to medicine's battle against political and social barriers to research, this provides an essential history important for any serious medical collection.

Fascinating read, interesting hypothesis:
A must read for anyone blinded by medicine's apparent glory and victories over human disease. This book exposes the past in which medicine's landmark discoveries/ events are shown to be mostly a combination of chance, persistance, mindless trial and error or even freak accident. From modern medicines illustrious history '10 definitive moments' have been selected by the author to illustrate the events that have led to the glorified status that medicine holds in our western society. Beginning with Penicillin in 1941 and ending with the discovery of Helicobacter, the cause of peptic ulcers, in 1984. These accounts make any reader wide-eyed at the simplicity of some of the research designs and truck loads of luck involved in the discoveries. This portion of the novel is full of interesting facts concerning the '10 definitive moments' written in rich narrative rather than a more conventional dry historical account to keep any reader glued to his lazy chair. The next portion of the book is an elaborate argument for his hypothesis; that medicine has long ago reached it epiphany and is currently in the decent phase, "The Fall". He gives convincing arguments for his opinion which makes a reader think about it even if one isn't totally convinced. The Title, "The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine" caught my attention and once I opened the book the words trapped me until the last page was turned. Even after closing the book I considered his hypothesis and reflected on it, which has spawned me to follow up on some of his references and read some of them. In my opinion any book that causes such a fury of reading, thought, and reference checking and further reading is worth a look by any casually interested reader.