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Weekly Editors' Picks

Toward a Global View of Alcohol, Tobacco, Cannabis, and Cocaine Use: Findings from the WHO World Mental Health Surveys

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Louisa Degenhardt and colleagues report results from a survey of 17 countries that found clear differences in drug use across different regions of the world.

Image Credit: WHO

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The Effect of Delaying Childbirth on Primary Cesarean Section Rates

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Gordon Smith and colleagues find a relationship between cesarean delivery and a mother's age, and that increasing maternal age is associated with reduced spontaneous uterine activity but increased multiphasic spontaneous myometrial contractions.

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Documenting Mortality in Crises: What Keeps Us from Doing Better?

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Francesco Checchi and Les Roberts discuss how mortality among crisis-affected populations is currently documented, barriers to better documentation, and how these barriers might be overcome. This article is the second in a series on conducting research on humanitarian emergencies; the first, by Vincent Brown and colleagues, discussed the MSF/Epicentre experience.

Image credit: Julius Kusuma

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Learning Forums in PLoS Medicine

This week PLoS Medicine publishes a Learning Forum piece by Babak Javid and colleagues discussing the differential diagnosis, investigation, and management of a woman with abdominal symptoms and a raised C-reactive protein. Learning Forum articles discuss an important clinical problem of relevance to a general medical audience. Previous Learning Forum articles are as follows:

June 2008 Issue

June 2008 Issue

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From the Web

The Global Burden of Disease

The Global Burden of Disease: Mental Disorders and Illicit Drug Use Expert Group, mentioned in this week's Research Article by Louisa Degenhardt and colleagues, is currently researching the global burden of disease of illicit drug use and mental health disorders.

Image Credit: GBD: MDIDUEG

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