Health & Medicine

Managing the power of music to foster safety and avoid harm

By Annie Heiderscheit and Kathleen M. Murphy

Pulitzer Prize recipient and American playwright Lynn Nottage shared in a recent interview, “What music can do is get to the emotion with incredible economy and efficiency.” This capacity that music holds to reach in and connect to the wide range of emotions we experience as human beings can be a wonderful asset as it accesses those feelings we want to revisit and are ready to express. This becomes challenging and potentially harmful when it relates to unexpressed or unresolved emotions and experiences.

Healing conversation in medical care

By Richard P. McQuellon

Every day thousands of people have conversations with healthcare providers (HCPs) about their medical condition. Such meetings can be profoundly comforting or extremely distressing to the patient and caregiver.

The VSI podcast season three: ageing, Pakistan, slang, psychopathy, and more

By The VSI podcast team

Listen to season three of The VSI Podcast for concise and original introductions to a selection of our VSI titles from the authors themselves.

The top 10 science blog posts of 2021

By OUPblog team

From the evolution of consciousness to cosmic encounters, the Brain Health Gap to palliative medicine, 2021 has been a year filled with discovery across scientific disciplines. On the OUPblog, we have published blogs posts showcasing the very latest research and insights from our expert authors at the Press. Make sure you’re caught up with the best of science in 2021 with our top 10 blog posts of the year:

How research abstracts succeed and fail

By David H. Foster

The abstract of a research article has a simple remit: to faithfully summarize the reported research. After the title, it’s the most read section of the article. Crucially, it makes the case to the reader for reading the article in full. Alas, not all abstracts succeed.

Caring for our most vulnerable: lessons from COVID-19 on policy changes in the care home sector

By Adam Gordon

If the true measure of any society is how it cares for its most vulnerable, then the catastrophic impact of COVID-19 on care home residents during the first wave of the pandemic was a sad indictment. Older people living in care homes are truly our most vulnerable.

New pathways through later life: redesigning later life work and retirement

By Dawn Carr

In March of 2020, for many Americans and older workers especially, what it meant to go to work changed in an instant. As some workers moved their offices into their homes, others had to go to work and face significant risks to their health each day.

Can what we eat have an effect on the brain?

By Bo Ekstrand

Food plays an important role in brain performance and health. In our review, we outline the role of diet in five key areas: brain development, signalling networks and neurotransmitters in the brain, cognition and memory, the balance between protein formation and degradation, and deteriorative effects due to chronic inflammatory processes.

10 books on palliative medicine and end-of-life care [reading list]

By OUP Medicine team

Each year an estimated 40 million people are in need of palliative care, 78% of whom live in low- and middle-income countries. This reading list of recent titles can help you to reflect on palliative medicine as a public health need.

Is food addiction contributing to global obesity?

By Ashley Gearhardt and Johannes Hebebrand

What is it about highly processed foods that causes such a public health threat? Why are people unable to quit even when they are highly motivated to do so? Evidence is growing that highly processed foods are capable of triggering addictive processes akin to addictive drugs like tobacco.

OUP celebrates their BMA 2021 Award winners

We are delighted to announce the OUP published titles that have been presented with awards at this year’s British Medical Association Medical Book Awards.

Does “overeating” cause obesity? The evidence is less filling

By David S. Ludwig

The usual way of thinking considers obesity a problem of energy balance. Take in more calories than you expend—in other words, “overeat”—and weight gain will inevitably result. The simple solution, according to the prevailing Energy Balance Model (EBM), is to eat less and move more. New research shows that viewing body weight control as an energy balance problem is fundamentally wrong, or at least not helpful, for three reasons.

Elderspeak: the language of ageism in healthcare

By Clarissa Shaw and Jean K. Gordon

Elderspeak or baby talk to older adults is frequent in the healthcare context. Although elderspeak is typically well-intentioned it arises from a place of implicit ageism and can have negative consequences for older adults, particularly those with dementia.

Lessons learned—will suffering through one pandemic help prevent another?

By Chris Dye

We are still in the throes of the worst respiratory disease pandemic since the “Spanish” flu of 1918─and it’s far from over yet. Given the pain and misery, we will surely absorb all that COVID-19 can teach us about preventing another pandemic.

Studying cancer incidence in 9/11 first-responders: lessons learned for future disasters

By James Cone

This week on the 20th Anniversary of the 9/11 World Trade Center (WTC) disaster, we are provided with an opportunity to reflect on the lessons learned in the aftermath of this event and consider what can be done to reduce the health impacts of future disasters. Our latest study of cancer incidence among rescue and recovery workers exposed to the WTC disaster on 9 September 2001 demonstrates the value of ongoing surveillance of chronic health effects.

Science denial: why it happens and 5 things you can do about it

By Barbara K. Hofer and Gale M. Sinatra

Science denial became deadly in 2020. Many political leaders failed to support what scientists knew to be effective prevention measures. Over the course of the pandemic, people died from COVID-19 still believing it did not exist.