Physician staffing for the practice of psychosomatic medicine in general hospitals: a pilot study.

Background: The treatment of psychiatric illnesses, prevalent in the general hospital, requires broadly trained providers with expertise at the interface of psychiatry and medicine. Since each hospital operates under different economic constraints, it is difficult to establish an appropriate ratio of such providers to patients.

Objective: The authors sought to determine the current staffing patterns and ratios of Psychosomatic Medicine practitioners in general hospitals, to better align manpower with clinical service and educational requirements on consultation-liaison psychiatry services.

Iodine alters gene expression in the MCF7 breast cancer cell line: evidence for an anti-estrogen effect of iodine.

The protective effects of iodine on breast cancer have been postulated from epidemiologic evidence and described in animal models. The molecular mechanisms responsible have not been identified but laboratory evidence suggests that iodine may inhibit cancer promotion through modulation of the estrogen pathway. To elucidate the role of iodine in breast cancer, the effect of Lugol's iodine solution (5% I(2), 10% KI) on gene expression was analyzed in the estrogen responsive MCF-7 breast cancer cell line.