The 1995 Kikwit Ebola outbreak: lessons hospitals and physicians can apply to future viral epidemics.

Objective: This article looks at lessons learned from the 1995 Kikwit Ebola outbreak and suggests how modern hospitals should apply these lessons to the next lethal viral epidemic that occurs.

Method: The 1995 Kikwit Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formally Zaire) is one of the most well studied epidemics to have occurred to date. Many of the lessons learned from identifying, containing and treating that epidemic are applicable to future viral outbreaks, natural disasters and bioterrorist attacks.

Medical and psychiatric casualties caused by conventional and radiological (dirty) bombs.

Bombing is the preferred method of terrorist attack. Unfortunately, the frequency and prevalence of this form of terrorism/criminal act/means of extortion are increasing in the United States. These attacks result in specific physical and psychiatric trauma, and produce both acute and long-term psychiatric sequelae.

Psychiatric complications of anabolic steroid abuse.

The authors review the literature from human and animal studies on the neurochemical and pathological psychiatric effects of supraphysiological doses of anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) and discuss the AAS use and abuse patterns, additional drug use patterns, and personality and behavioral characteristics of AAS abusers.

Definition, diagnosis, and forensic implications of postconcussional syndrome.

Injuries from blows to the head often are manifested only as subjective complaints. Postconcussional syndrome thus can be feigned for financial or psychological gain. The authors review the pathology of brain trauma, symptoms of postconcussional syndrome, and criteria for diagnosis.