Press Releases Saturday 10 April 1999
No 7189 Volume 318
Please remember to credit the BMJ as source when publicising
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(1) TV MEDICAL
DRAMAS HAVE ENORMOUS RESPONSIBILITY
FOR EDUCATING VIEWERS ON MEDICAL MATTERS
(2) STROKES ARE MORE COMMON IN THE BLACK POPULATION
(1) TV MEDICAL DRAMAS
HAVE ENORMOUS RESPONSIBILITY
FOR
EDUCATING VIEWERS ON MEDICAL MATTERS
(Effects of a drug overdose in a
television drama on presentations to
hospital for self poisoning: time
series and questionnaire study)
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/318/7189/972
(Effects of a drug overdose in a
television drama on knowledge of
specific dangers of self poisoning:
population based surveys)
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/318/7189/978
Events depicted in television medical dramas
can influence viewers'
behaviour and therefore producers must
ensure that the clinical
information they portray is accurate say
researchers in this week's BMJ.
In two studies, which centred around an
episode of the BBC's Casualty
in which a character took an overdose
of paracetamol, the researchers
found that both knowledge of the effects
of fatal liver damage after such
an overdose and the actual incidences
of self-poisoning increased.
In their study of 49 accident and emergency
departments and
psychiatric services in the UK, Professor
Keith Hawton from the
Warneford Hospital in Oxford and colleagues
found that in the week
after the episode of Casualty was broadcast,
people attempting
overdoses increased by nearly one fifth
(17 per cent). Paracetamol
overdoses increased in particular, but
only among those patients who
had seen the Casualty episode. There was
not an increase in the
number of deaths caused by self-poisoning
after the broadcast.
In a separate, but related study, Dr Susan
O'Connor from Barrow
Hospital in Bristol and colleagues discovered
that medical soap operas
also have enormous potential for educating
viewers about medical
matters. Those people who had watched
the episode of Casualty were
twice as likely to know about the specific
dangers of paracetamol
poisoning than those who had not and this
increased knowledge was
largely found to be retained eight months
after the broadcast.
O'Connor et al conclude that there is an
onus on broadcasters to ensure
that medical information is presented
correctly, whilst Hawton and
colleagues say that their findings raise
serious questions about the
portrayal of suicidal behaviour on television.
They argue that TV
producers should consider how their clearly
influential role could
encourage those people at risk to seek
help, thereby contributing to the
prevention of this major health problem.
Contact:
Professor Keith Hawton, Professor of Psychiatry,
University of Oxford,
Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital,
Oxford
Email: Keith.Hawton{at}psychiatry.oxford.ac.uk
Dr Susan O'Connor, Consultant Psychiatrist,
United Bristol Healthcare
Trust, Directorate of Mental Health, Barrow
Hospital, Bristol
Email: susan.oconnor{at}ukonline.co.uk
or Professor Christopher Bulstrode, Professor
of Orthopaedics,
University of Oxford, Nuffield Department
of Orthopaedic Surgery,
John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford
(2) STROKES ARE MORE COMMON IN THE BLACK POPULATION
(Ethnic differences in incidence
of stroke: prospective study with
stroke register)
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/318/7189/967
The incidence rate of stroke is twice as
high in black people than in
white people, say researchers in this
week's BMJ. Dr Judith Stewart
and colleagues from Guy's, King's College
and St Thomas's School of
Medicine found that in their study of
234,533 people in south London,
the incidence of stroke in the black population
(who accounted for 21
per cent of the total population) was
both higher and occured at a
younger age.
The authors found that this phenomenon
was not explained by
confounders such as social class, age
or sex and they conclude that
ethnic differences in genetic, physiological
and behavioural risk factors
for stroke should be investigated further.
They say that this information
could then provide the basis for effective
strategies for stoke prevention
in multi-ethnic communities.
Contact:
Dr Charles Wolfe, Reader in Public Health
Medicine, Department of
Public Health Sciences, Guy's, King's
College and St Thomas's School
of Medicine, London
Email: c.wolfe{at}umds.ac.uk
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