Primary care clinicians are called on to care for adolescents in a time with increasing pharmacologic agents that are available in the management of these patients. The emphasis in this book is on the current pharmacologic treatment of common medical disorders in adolescents. Selected topics of practical relevance in adolescent medicine are covered. The goal of this book is to provide a succinct and practical guide specifically written for practicing physicians and allied health professionals who work with adolescents.

The author's main goal in this book is to introduce the beginning student or pediatric resident to a systematic method of medical decision making. This book is divided into three basic sections: history-taking; physical examination; and medical reasoning. It is important to note that the purpose of this book is NOT to teach everything there is to know about every possible medical diagnosis, but rather to establish a framework for reasoning out a problem. The author assumes that as the learners read about and experience many more encounters over their training period they will be able to apply the facts to this basic framework. Thus, it is important to note that the history-taking and physical examination, first and second sections specifically do NOT mention any diagnoses. Their main purpose is to present the full array of data that needs to be gathered. Note the insertion of several clinical tricks of the trade to help gain accurate data. The third section, medical reasoning will take the reader through the thought process of arriving at a diagnosis. It addresses sifting and winnowing through large amounts of data: interpretation of history, what questions to ask, what questions may or may not be pertinent to the situation at hand, making initial hypotheses and testing them with information from a physical examination. We discuss what to examine based on the history, interpreting the remaining data, re-evaluating hypotheses, re-thinking them and narrowing them further, ideally (but not always) into a unifying hypothesis. If necessary, the author discusses the use of laboratory and imaging as further means to test hypotheses. The author then discusses making treatment plans with the idea forefront in the mind that the hypothesis still may indeed be wrong and have to be revised. The narrowing-down process is critical and necessary for the rational practice of medicine and the techniques are often referred to as "heuristics" (short-cuts). They are most helpful, but are certainly not infallible. The author therefore discusses pitfalls in clinical diagnosis in order to keep the reader keenly aware of the fact that hypotheses are in need of constant review and revision if necessary. This book presents two illustrative and simple cases as journeys through the medical reasoning process. As the learner progresses, he/she will learn to navigate through more difficult cases, However, the more simple cases provide the tools to use for the more complex ones. It is the author's hope that early on in medical training the learners will appreciate the importance of good histories and physical examinations and how to interpret them. They will find that much of the information gathered in this manner will serve them well and lead to more judicious and appropriate usage of technology to arrive at diagnoses.

This book summarises the state of cognoscibility with regard to normal new-born care that has accumulated over the past centuries, especially the 20th and now 21st century. This compendium is not an ersatz discussion of neonatology, but of the fascinating zone that involves the new-born in the normal new-born nursery. It is not a homogenous area and thus, some overlap is inevitable in such a compilation of data. The preface details historical concepts that have followed new-borns over the millennia of homo sapiens' existence, such as infanticide, breast feeding, swaddling, neonatal resuscitation, and principles of caring for new-borns. The mortality rate of new-borns has been reduced in many parts of the world in this century and we have learned much more about how to keep increasing numbers of new-borns alive, especially when health care providers and society collaborate in this important endeavour and emphasise known preventative principles. Current modern paediatric and perinatal treatments allow new-borns in the current 21st century America to have a start on an overall life expectancy of 78.5 years (up to 76 years in males and 80.9 years in females), if they receive meticulous medical care even if born into a penurious state. Such deserved care and inevitable ongoing medical discoveries will only lengthen these life trajectories.

The integument (the natural covering of an organism or an organ, such as its skin, husk, shell, or rind) is the largest organ system of the human body and is often described as the gatekeeper to every other system. Its integrity will not only determine the admission or rejection of many foreign invaders (bacteria, viruses, fungi, etc.), but also plays a significant role in providing the milieu for the immune system to do battle with these invaders. It is typically the first view of an examiner and often yields very important clues to seemingly non-dermatologic issues. This book takes us one step further, devoting chapters to the interplay between integument and heretofore generally unnoted strongly related psychosocial issues.

The mortality rate of newborns has been reduced in many parts of the world and we have learned much about how to keep more newborns alive, especially when health care providers and society collaborate in this important endeavor and emphasize known preventative principles. We know that death of newborns causes emotional stress to the newborn's family as well as to the involved health caregivers. We are also learning about the historical rights of the fetus in modern society. Over the past 50 years, there has been an increasing focus of attention, research and resources on assuring the survival and long term outcome of infants who are born premature. As a result of advances in knowledge and technology, there has followed an increased likelihood for survival of even the smallest of premature infants. In this book, we present some of the health and social issues for children born into this world.