Like most extreme behaviors, excessive videogame playing functions as a cover or adaptive mechanism for underlying anxiety and depression. Compulsive gaming, like all pathological solutions (alcohol, drugs, gambling) makes a bad situation worse.
One of the many doors money and power often open gives access to opioids where they would otherwise be withheld without strict oversight and management. Elvis Presley provides perhaps the most famous example of unmanaged access to drugs.
An older generation was far more likely to understand itself and its social world in terms of sin and virtue, vice and godliness. Lack of self-control and weakness of will were moral failings to be avoided. That sort of language has fallen on hard times.
The greatest pressure to resuscitate the extremely low-birth-weight infant often results from successful marketing efforts that lead families to expect that their premature infants will be cute and healthy.
Physicians new to a case might object to an established care plan. Practice variation, clinical momentum, and how value is assigned by different parties to acute care and comfort measures can each contribute to conflict in these cases.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(8):E699-707. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.699.
Dr Christy Cauley joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article, coauthored with Dr Zara Cooper: "Which Priorities Should Guide Palliative Surgical Research?"
On this episode of Ethics Talk, Editorial Fellow Dr C. Alessandra Colaianni describes the creation of this month’s issue on palliative surgery, and Dr Wynne Morrison explains how to explore palliative surgical goal formation with children and their guardians.
Dr Charles E. Binkley joins Ethics Talk to discuss his article: "How Should Surgeons Communicate About Palliative and Curative Intentions, Purposes, and Outcomes?"
Robert Ledbetter and Dr Buddy Marterre join Ethics Talk to discuss their article: “Where’s the Value in Preoperative Covenants Between Surgeons and Patients?”