Minerva

doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7535.246

From trainee to consultant, BMJ Group offers doctors around the world tailored information, special events, learning resources and recruitment services at every step along their career path.

... by doctors, for doctors, for patients
We are open for entries!

Online learning

BMJ Learning

High-quality CME / CPD for doctors and other healthcare professionals. BMJ Learning features hundreds of accredited, peer-reviewed learning modules in text, video, and audio formats. Find out more

Courses and Qualifications

BMJ Masterclasses

BMJ Masterclasses, led by experts, help clinicians to use the latest evidence and recent guidelines in practice and meet their CPD/CME requirements. Find out more

Exam Preparation

The leading provider of online exam preparation, helping over 167,000 healthcare professionals to pass their exams. Find out more

onExamination

Search all BMJ education articles:

From

Limit by

Access to the full text of this article requires a subscription or payment. Please log in or subscribe below.

A UK-Iraqi network hopes to help reverse the scientific isolation that Iraq is in and, by doing so, return the favour that Iraq did for the world in the areas of science and arts. Books to Iraq (www.bookstoiraq.org.uk) has been set up to help Iraqi pharmacists get current textbooks into the eight pharmacy schools there. Iraq is important in the history of pharmacy. Baghdad was a prominent centre for science and culture. Enlightened caliphs created an atmosphere where scholars of many nations could contribute to intellectual life, and scientists translated and preserved ancient Greek, Persian, and Indian manuscripts.

A 49 year old woman presented with a severe flare up of ulcerative colitis. Intravenous hydrocortisone, aminosalicylates, and ciclosporin treatment was started, and after seven days oral prednisolone was introduced. This letter was one of a series of 12 written by the woman over the subsequent six days, and received by a member of the medical team. An examination of the patient's mental state showed a florid psychosis. Steroid psychosis is an important, but often overlooked, dose related adverse drug reaction. The onset is most common with oral steroid treatment and higher doses of steroids. This patient recovered fully after steroid withdrawal, although up to 10% of affected patients have ongoing psychiatric problems.

Samer …