Tag Archives: Journal of the American Medical Association

The World Brain Death Project: What It Means

Posted on August 19, 2020 by David E Smith
In December of 1967, the first successful heart transplant was performed in South Africa by Dr. Christian Barnard. At that time, there were no guidelines for the diagnosis of death for beating heart donors.

In September of 1968, the Report of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Harvard Medical School to Examine the Definition of Brain Death was published with the purpose of defining irreversible coma as a new criterion for death.
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Marketing Death and Alzheimer’s Disease

Posted on August 22, 2019 by David E Smith

An April, 2019 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association titled “Attitudes Toward Physician-Assisted Death From Individuals Who Learn They Have an Alzheimer Disease Biomarker” found that  approximately 20% of cognitively normal older adults who had elevated beta-amyloid — a biomarker that is thought to increase the risk of Alzheimer’s disease — said they would consider physician-assisted suicide if they experienced a cognitive decline. Not everyone with amyloid plaques goes on to develop Alzheimer’s disease.

Although no state with legalized physician-assisted suicide currently allows lethal overdoses for people with Alzheimer’s or other dementia, Emily Largent, JD, PhD, …

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13 Reasons Why Netflix Debut Linked To Dramatic Increase In Teen Suicides

Posted on May 23, 2019 by David E Smith
When Netflix first released the series 13 Reasons Why in May of 2017, school systems and public health officials all over the country warned that it could cause an increase in teenage suicide. Apparently, that is exactly what happened.According to a study in the April 2019 Journal of American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry: “After accounting for seasonal effects and an underlying increasing trend in monthly suicide rates, the overall suicide rate among 10-17 year-olds increased significantly in the month immediately following the release.”
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Marijuana and Psychosis

Posted on March 29, 2019 by David E Smith
The pitfalls and perils of marijuana legalization are well-documented. But whenever we discuss that research here on BreakPoint, we’re accused of not having the right research. What that means is that we’ve used studies that contradict the very vocal advocates of weed.

Well, let’s see what happens when we cite The British journal The Lancet, which, along with the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association, is considered the “gold standard” for peer-reviewed medical research. It doesn’t get more “real” than being published in The Lancet.

A just-published study in The …

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