Narrative review: what constitutes contemporary, high-quality end-of-life care and can lessons be learned from medieval history?

Background And Objective: In modern Britain, palliative and end-of-life care is governed by quality standards and guidance, which should consider spiritual and psychological needs. However, there are significant gaps in provision of services which was highlighted during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic where many individuals and families suffered profound spiritual and existential distress. Significant gaps remain in the provision of services to support patients with spiritual and psychological needs which can affect the management of physical symptoms.

Beyond faith: Biomolecular evidence for changing urban economies in multi-faith medieval Portugal.

Objectives: During the Middle Ages, Portugal witnessed unprecedented socioeconomic and religious changes under transitioning religious political rule. The implications of changing ruling powers for urban food systems and individual diets in medieval Portugal is poorly understood. This study aimed to elucidate the dietary impact of the Islamic and Christian conquests.

What is "colonial" about colonial medicine? Iberian health in global context.

Colonial medicine is a thriving field of study in the history of nineteenth- and twentieth-century medicine. Medicine can be used as a lens to view colonialism in action and as a way to critique colonialism. This article argues that key debates and ideas from that modern field can fruitfully be applied to the Middle Ages, especially for the early empires of Spain and Portugal (mid-fourteenth to mid-sixteenth centuries).

Both "illness and temptation of the enemy": melancholy, the medieval patient and the writings of King Duarte of Portugal (r. 1433-38).

Recent historians have rehabilitated King Duarte of Portugal, previously maligned and neglected, as an astute ruler and philosopher. There is still a tendency, however, to view Duarte as a depressive or a hypochondriac, due to his own description of his melancholy in his advice book, the Loyal Counselor. This paper reassesses Duarte's writings, drawing on key approaches in the history of medicine, such as narrative medicine and the history of the patient.