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This book explores key aspects of scientific reasoning, clinical methodology, and evidence-based practice, using quotes from the lectures of Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893) as a starting point for discussion and in-depth analysis. Charcot is a towering figure in the history of medicine, regarded as the father of modern neurology. The lectures he delivered at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, where he examined patients with various disorders, remain an invaluable source of insight into his reasoning, clinical acumen, and methodology.
The book aims to bridge the enduring legacy of the past with recent advances in epistemology and clinical methodology. It covers a variety of relevant topics, including inductive and deductive reasoning, logical fallacies, the importance of history-taking, the Bayesian approach to diagnosis, principles of evidence-based practice, critical appraisal of different study types, and the necessity of a skeptical attitude toward tradition and authority.
Readers will gain crucial insights into scientific reasoning and clinical methodology from a fresh and potentially enlightening perspective. This could enhance clinical activities and stimulate thoughtful and critical reflections on everyday clinical practice.
List of contents
Preface.- Part I. Methodological Aspects.- 1. Charcot, the Master: Who Was He and What Can We Learn from Him?.- 2. I Can't Believe My Eyes (And Actually I Should Not)! Don't Get Confounded by Confounders!.- 3. What to Expect from Experience?.- 4. "The Theory Is Good, but That Doesn't Prevent Reality from Existing".- 5. Induction and Deduction: Taken in the Loop.- 6. Nothing but a Domino Effect: Is Causation Really That Simple?.- 7. Let's Think About It! Metacognition of Clinical Thinking.- 8. The Razor That Does Not Split Hairs.- 9. Useless and Yet So Useful: Why We Should Keep Visiting Our Patients.- 10. Step by Step: Approach to the Diagnosis.- 11. Not All Errors Are Created Equally: Biological Variability and Systematic Errors (Bias).- 12. I'm Never Wrong! Logical Fallacies and Cognitive Errors.- 13. Evidence Is Much but Not All: Rethinking Evidence-Based Medicine.- 14. How to Critically Appraise a Medical Article.- Part II. Theory and Practice.- 15. Critical Appraisal of a Therapy Article: Randomized Controlled Trial.- 16. Critical Appraisal of a Therapy Article: Non-Randomized Controlled Study and Uncontrolled Study.- 17. Critical Appraisal of a Diagnosis Article.- Part III. Epilogue.- 18. Beware of Masters (Yes, Even of Charcot)! The Importance of Distrusting Everything and Everyone.- Index.
