[Diagnosis and treatment of brain tumours].

Primary brain tumours are relatively rare, but brain metastases are a frequent complication of the most common cancers elsewhere in the body (breast, lung, melanoma). Loss of function and excitation of brain nerves i.e.

[Perinatal mortality in The Netherlands 2000-2006; risk factors and risk selection].

Objective: To gain insight in recent perinatal mortality figures in The Netherlands and their relation with important risk factors, risk groups and risk selection among pregnant women.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Method: The National Obstetrical Registrations and the National Neonatal Registration were linked into The Netherlands Perinatal Registry to prevent double counting.

[Perspectives in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer stage III with radiotherapy and concomitant low-dosage chemotherapy].

Patients with a non-small cell lung cancer stage III should preferably be treated with a combination of concomitant radiotherapy and platinum-containing chemotherapy. Concomitant chemoradiation results in improved survival compared to sequential chemoradiation, although this type oftreatment is associated with higher oesophagus toxicity. With concomitant chemoradiation the chemotherapy can be added in several ways to high-dosage radiotherapy, for example in the form of 2 courses of high dose, platinum-containing polychemotherapy once every 3 weeks.

['State of the nation's healthcare 2008' annual report: technology is useful, but training comes first].

The Netherlands Health Care Inspectorate's annual report on the state of the nation's healthcare in 2008 is dedicated to the use of medical technology. The subtitle of the report is 'Risks of medical technology underestimated'. Lack of education and training expose patients to an unacceptable risk of injury within both the care and the cure setting.

[Renewed interest in neuropsychiatry within child and adolescent psychiatry].

Child and adolescent psychiatry has existed as a subspecialty since the 1920s. In the early days its practitioners regarded observation as their main source of knowledge. In the period after 1970 the anti-psychiatric movement gained momentum, presenting a threat to child and adolescent psychiatrists.

[25 years antipsychotics: back to the future?].

The introduction of antipsychotics 50 years ago caused a revolution in psychiatry and deinstitutionalised psychotic patients on a massive scale. However, the new atypical antipsychotics introduced in the last 25 years have done very little to improve the treatment of psychosis. During this period pharmacological research into new antipsychotics has concentrated on the development of drugs which are just as effective as typical antipsychotics but which cause fewer extra-pyramidal side effects and have a more powerful effect on negative symptoms and cognitive problems.

[Addiction and care for addicts].

In the course of the last 50 years our knowledge about the epidemiology, aetiology, pathogenesis, prevention, and treatment of addiction has increased dramatically. Since the 1980s treatment providers have had at their disposal effective psychotherapeutic interventions whereby insightful forms of treatment have been largely replaced by cognitive behavioural therapy aimed at bringing about changes in behaviour. Since the 1990s more and more pharmacological interventions have also been introduced and recently some new neurophysiological interventions have been carefully tested.

[A safer surgical pathway: monitoring in the operation room alone is insufficient].

Surgical adverse events remain a considerable problem: over 50% of in-hospital adverse events are related to a surgical procedure. The WHO, in its 'Safe surgery saves lives' campaign, propose what is essentially an expanded time-out procedure, including a debriefing. In recent years, this type of procedure has been widely advocated and implemented.