[Assisting diabetics in Portugal: the structuring role of the Association to Protect Poor Diabetics, 1926-1946]

Assistance to diabetics in Portugal was quintessentially linked to the 1926 foundation of the Association to Protect Poor Diabetics (Associação Protetora dos Diabéticos Pobres) which was decisive in structuring diabetology in Portugal. This article shows how during the first half of the twentieth century, this association helped create a model of assistance for diabetics in this country based on the principles of modern diabetology. First, we examine its functional and clinical organization to comply with assistance policy during the New State period in Portugal. Next, we depict the organization of the assistance model, which included treatment and education of poor patients with diabetes.

[The history of teaching at the Fernandes Figueira Institute: an interview with Susana Wuillaume]

This interview was conducted with Susana Maciel Wuillaume, a pediatrician with broad experience in education and in the management of the Fernandes Figueira Institute. Various topics in the institution's history and Wuillaume's individual trajectory were covered, such as the organization of the graduate course and the medical residency programs and the structure of the institution itself. This interview is part of a project to document and investigate the history of the Fernandes Figueira Institute, which celebrates its one hundredth anniversary in 2024.

[Research and health care at the Fernandes Figueira Institute: an interview with José Augusto de Britto]

This material is the result of an interview with José Augusto Alves de Britto, a physician who served as director of the Fernandes Figueira Institute from 2001 to 2008. It covers different aspects of the history of the institution, such as research development, health care, and transformations in the daily routine there. It is part of a project to document and investigate the history of the Fernandes Figueira Institute, which celebrates its one hundredth anniversary in 2024.

Nurse autonomy expressed in Portuguese and Brazilian professional legislation: a documentary study (1986-2022)

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the convergence of nurse's autonomy expressed in Brazilian and Portuguese professional practice legislation.

METHOD

Qualitative, social-historical documentary study on the normalization of Brazilian and Portuguese professional standards for nursing practice, materials socialized in the digital collection of the profession's organizational and disciplinary entities. Qualitative analysis from the perspective of Eliot Freidson's sociology of professions.

RESULTS

Ten standards were analyzed, five from each country, which establish legislation for the nurses' professional practice. The following categories emerged: autonomy of knowledge and specific competence of the profession, in the ethical limits of the multi-professional relationship and in the disciplining of training for professional practice.

CONCLUSION

The professional autonomy under analysis implies providing access to services and to multi-professionality for the availability of health to society.

The past, present and future of Alzheimer's disease - part 1: the past

BACKGROUND

 Alzheimer's disease (AD) was described in 1907, and since then it changed from a relatively rare condition to one of the most prevalent diseases.

OBJECTIVE

 To describe the evolution of the notions of dementias and AD, and to investigate the reasons for the increase in scientific interest in AD.

METHODS

 A historical analysis was carried out on knowledge about dementia, the site of mental activity, the relationships between brain diseases and mental activity, and on the advances in research about AD, since its discovery until the publication of the amyloid cascade hypothesis in 1992. A search was carried out in the National Library of Medicine (PubMed) for scientific articles that included the terms dementia or AD over 50 years, from 1972 to 2021.

RESULTS

 The scientific research on AD increased from 615 papers with the term AD in the first decade (1972-1981), to 100,028 papers in the last decade (2012-2021): an increase of 162.6 times whereas publications with the term dementia increased 28.6 times in the same period. In the 1960s and 1970s, a consensus was reached that AD is responsible for the majority of cases of dementia previously known as senile dementia. In the 1980s, beta-amyloid peptide was identified in the core of the senile plaque, hyperphosphorylated tau protein was found in neurofibrillary tangles, and a mutation was discovered in a hereditary form of AD.

CONCLUSION

 The expansion of the concept of AD to include senile dementia, and the discoveries that occurred in the 1980s greatly expanded research in AD.

Jean-Martin Charcot: the polymath

Jean-Martin Charcot, widely regarded as a leading founder of modern neurology, made substantial contributions to the understanding and characterization of numerous medical conditions. His initial focus was on internal medicine, later expanding to include neuropathology, general neurology, and eventually emerging fields such as neuropsychology and neuropsychiatry. Furthermore, Charcot's intellectual pursuits extended beyond medicine, encompassing research in art history, medical iconography, sociology, religious studies, and the arts, solidifying his status as a polymath.

An appraisal to Hans Berger by the time of his 150th birthday: the human EEG and tales of blood flow, heat and brain waves

More than 100 years of research have passed by and still the human electroencephalogram (EEG) remains a puzzle to be solved. Starting from his studies on plethysmography until his theories on brain thermodynamics, Hans Berger was able to refine his method of recording cortical signs with the apparatus at his disposal in an ordinary neuropsychiatric yard towards an early account of human EEG. This review is an appraisal of his contribution to the field of modern neurophysiology.

[Sports, health, and banking: soccer in the lives of bank workers in São Paulo, 1929-1932]

This study investigates how soccer was part of the lives of bank workers in the city of São Paulo between 1929 and 1932, looking at who these workers were and the meaning they attributed to sports in the Banking Athletic Sports League (Liga Bancária de Esportes Atléticos). Sources included reports, documents, and publications of the São Paulo State Bank Employees' Association. Reflections on "class" and "class culture," the concept of "experience," and the notion of "middle class" were all utilized in analyzing the sources, and revealed variations in representations of sports and soccer among these employees.

Nursing, history, and orthopedics in manuals (1875-1928)

OBJECTIVES

to discuss the content of manuals, with emphasis on orthopedics, in support of the development of nursing care culture.

METHODS

cultural-historical method articulated with document analysis technique. The sources were nursing manuals - Portuguese, French, English, and Spanish - from 1875 to 1928.

RESULTS

this study pointed to 12 works - 6 authored by physicians, 2 by nurses, 3 institutional, and 1 by a Sister of Charity - that presented, in a transversal way, the professionalization process initiated in Europe. The manuals addressed first aid care and immobilization methods, from the simplest, such as improvised splints, to the application of plaster casts.

CONCLUSIONS

the nurses' work, even in a limited capacity, showed that they were able to observe warning signs so that doctors could act, with some exceptions.

[The roots of trauma: a review of the history of psychotrauma]

Perceptions of the importance of the role of psychological trauma in the origins of psychiatric problems have oscillated throughout the history of psychiatry. However, since the conception of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), western societies have witnessed a marked expansion of the discourse of trauma in the interpretation of devastating human experiences like catastrophes, genocides, disasters, and epidemics. Through an integrative literature review, this article analyzes some of the historical and epistemological determinants behind the emergence of traumatic memory and the establishment of trauma as a semantic field that orients clinical responses and political strategies in the field of the humanities and the health sciences.

[The train and the "Spanish señorita":the flu epidemic in Diamantina, 1918]

The article analyzes the influenza epidemic in 1918 in Diamantina, a town in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. Bibliographic and documental sources are used to investigate the influence of the Vitória-Minas railroad (Estrada de Ferro Vitória a Minas), opened in 1914, on the arrival of the disease in the town, which had until then been represented in the discourse of its elites as insalubrious and isolated. The interrelations between the spread of transportation systems across Brazil, the environment, scientific knowledge, and health-disease processes are discussed.

Anatomical description of the brain wax models of Museu da Pharmacia de Ouro Preto

BACKGROUND

In 1839, the Escola de Farmácia de Ouro Preto pioneered the teaching of pharmaceutical sciences in Brazil. At the end of the 19th century, the Escola de Farmácia possessed a French collection of anatomical models, some made of wax and paper-mâché. The models were a critical part of teaching anatomy, particularly in an era of paradigm changes about how the human brain works.

OBJECTIVE

The present study aimed to anatomically describe the brain models through a comparative analysis with the current anatomical description.

METHODS

Comparative analysis of the brain models with modern anatomical descriptions.

RESULTS

In the individual analysis of the wax models, we verified excellent anatomical accuracy of the cortical and subcortical regions. Our results identified internal structures, like the basal ganglia and white matter. Compared with modern anatomical books and websites, the wax brain models have high scientific quality.

CONCLUSION

The models of the present study gave students hands-on experience of human anatomy in the 19^th century. Nowadays, the models are part of the memory of Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto and Museu da Pharmacia de Ouro Preto . The collection of wax models shows the appreciation of neuroanatomy teaching at the turn of the century concomitant with advances in neurology and anatomy around the world.

The expulsion of Augusta Dejerine-Klumpke from the Salpêtrière Hospital: Pierre Marie's revenge

Augusta Dejerine-Klumpke was ahead of her time, with extensive contributions to the field of neuroanatomy and neurology, achieving international recognition. Despite her great contribution to world neurology, she was expelled from the Salpêtrière hospital in 1917, due to the rivalry and mutual hatred between Pierre Marie and his rival Jules Déjerine, her husband and collaborator.

Politics and power in ultra-modernity

This work addresses three main issues: (i) Jung's positions on the historical events that he lived through, which are mainly presented in Volume 10 of his Collected Works; (ii) a reflection from a psychological perspective on the times we are experiencing, identifying the main contemporary psychopathologies; (iii) the possibility and need for including the pathologies of our time in our psychotherapeutic work.

"Estrutura da Celula Nervoza", by Bruno Lobo and Gaspar Vianna (1908): a pioneering work on Brazilian Neuroscience

Currently, the scientific production in Neuroscience in Brazil is very rich, but, historically, it has been scarce at first. The aim of this study is to present the work "Estrutura da Celula Nervoza", by Bruno Lobo and Gaspar Vianna (1908), as a pioneering work for Brazilian science.