Cold Turkey, Blue Nails and Minimum Pricing.

Quick post this week - 4th year just seems to get busier by the week! This week I was reading the student BMJ (March) in which there were several interesting articles. Minimum pricing of alcohol was discussed, this seems to be an ongoing debate and will almost certainly have an important bearing on the next general election. I am definitely of the opinion that in the next 5-10 years there will be a massive change to the way in which alcohol is sold and consumed in the UK. The figures in Tayside alone show the scale of the financial burden to the NHS and the days of heavy boozing may soon be a thing of the past (good job my student days are nearly over then!).

The front page article on this month's student BMJ was regarding stem cell research however I've talked enough about this in previous posts (see below). Also covered in this month's journal was an insight into some disciplines which I previously had not known were present in the hospital. They are the critical care outreach teams and the bereavement officer. The critical care team can be contacted if there is a situation on the ward where a patient's state is deteriorating, presumably contactable at night, therefore it should never be the responsibility of a single doctor to manage a patient's care, nor should the doctor feel alone in this situation.

A moment for teaching: Wilson's Disease. This is an autosomal recessive inherited disorder of copper metabolism. Patients with this condition have impaired copper excretion and metabolism. Clinical signs of the disease are: eye signs (Kayser-Fleisher rings, extra-pyramidal disorders of movement eg. dystonia, psychosis and cirrhosis of the liver. Rarely the nails may appear to be a blue colour due to the effect of the copper.

Finally, there is recently published evidence that most quitters infact stop smoking without the need for additional support. Apparently often these patients are left out of trials and studies, partly because the research is not sponsored by any of the drugs companies which manufacture aids to help patients stop smoking.