Population screening follows the logic of secondary prevention: a population is screened to detect disease early and to initiate treatment before symptoms emerge. However, not all population screening is justifiable under all circumstances. In this article, we unpack Wilson and Jungner’s requirement that knowledge about the natural history of a disease must be ‘adequate’ for … Read more

This article examines an explanation circulating within a U.S. multidisciplinary pediatric pain clinic that links the neurobiology of functional pain disorders to desirable personal attributes such as smartness and creativity. Drawing on ethnographic observations and the analysis of video-recorded clinical interactions and focusing on two cases, I introduce the term personhood diagnostics to explore how … Read more

Feminist and disability scholars have critiqued the role of prenatal testing technologies in fostering parental expectations to give birth to “perfect” children. However, in the case of postnatal screening for genetic disorders, identifying large numbers of asymptomatic infants brings previously hidden imperfections into critical relief. Consequently, newborn screening technologies have altered the day-to-day landscape of … Read more

In this paper, I analyze the illness stories narrated by a mother and her 13-year-old son as part of an ethnographic study of child chronic pain sufferers and their families. In examining some of the moral, relational and communicative challenges of giving an account of one’s pain, I focus on what is left out of … Read more

A growing literature has drawn attention to the psychosocial impact of cancer on families with young children. However, to help families develop adaptive responses to chronic illness, recent scholarship has begun to advocate a shift in orientation from a deficit to a strengths perspective. In this article, the authors examine the reorganization of family life … Read more

The transfer of responsibility for diabetes management from parent to child has been seen as a central challenge for the clinical care of adolescents with Type 1 diabetes. Research is needed to better understand how clinicians, patients, and families handle the delicate balance between parental involvement and adolescent responsibility for diabetes management. The aim of … Read more

OBJECTIVE: Most patients who misuse alcohol do not receive alcohol counseling from their providers. This study evaluated primary care patient and provider characteristics associated with receipt of alcohol-related advice and whether patients were advised to drink less or to abstain. METHOD: Outpatients from seven Veterans Affairs (VA) general medicine clinics were eligible if they screened … Read more