Leon D. Hankoff

An epidemic of attempted suicide

Summary The occurrence of attempted suicide in an isolated command of United States Marine Corps troops was observed over a 12 month period. It is suggested that the higher rate of attempts during a particular two months period amounted to an epidemic. In explaining such an occurrence one must consider both individual and group levels of human organization. * *Opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Navy Department.

A double-blind outpatient study of diazepam (Valium) and placebo

SummaryInvestigators reporting clinical studies of diazepam tend to be enthusiastic about its effectiveness in controlling anxiety, but two careful double-blind studies on hospitalized patients found diazepam relatively ineffective. This investigation covering an outpatient population of one hundred found that treatment with diazepam was not significantly superior to placebo. Moreover, diazepam treatment was also associated in some patients with the emergence of suicidal thoughts or tendencies and paranoid tendencies in others.

Medicine in the Bible and the Talmud: Selections From Classical Jewish Sources

In this book, Rosner, a hematologist and rabbinic scholar, has provided us with a highly readable survey of the many medical matters mentioned in the Old Testament and the Talmud. The volume is a short, well-organized, and valuable introduction to a subject now deeply embedded in a vast intellectual structure. Along with his own contemporary medical assessment, the author has supplemented the study of the original Judaic material with the commentaries of later rabbinic authorities so that we are given a considerable view of the meaning of the original scriptural and talmudic references to medical matters. Jewish religious law is often explained in relation to the source material. The book has chapters on topics such as specific diseases, eg, scurvy; body organs, eg, the heart; and areas of general interest, eg, medical ethics. A discussion of the physicians of the Talmud is particularly interesting. Rosner has made relatively little effort