OHE Publications

Migraine is typical of the sort of ill-defined self-limiting condition which takes up much of the time of general practitioners. It involves no risk of mortality but it can cause acute intermittent incapacity to the sufferer, occurring with little warning and at times which may be inconvenient, socially embarrassing and often costly. Perhaps its nature can be best illustrated by a quotation from Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll, himself a migraine sufferer, ' I 'm very brave really', he went on in a low voice, 'only today I happen to have a headache' (Tweedledum).

Arguments in favour of family planning or 'birth control' can be advanced on the basis of one (or both) of two major premises. First, it may be held that overpopulation is the major problem facing the world today. Second, it may be held that family planning is justified primarily in terms of improvement in the quality of life of individuals and families who are able to use modem contraceptive techniques to choose for themselves if and when they want a child. Incidental to this is any saving to public funds that would follow from preventing unwanted births.

As early as 2080 BC reference can be found to epilepsy in the code of Hammurabi, King of Babylon. Special laws affecting the marriage of people with epilepsy and the validity of their testimony at court probably reflected unfounded fears and prejudices that have by no means been dispelled by twentieth century enlightenment.

In the first six months of 1970, 5 million working days were lost because of industrial disputes. This has been exceeded in only 2 years since the general strike in 1926. In comparison, over 300 million working days are lost every year through certified sickness absence. On the national level absence attributed to sickness has been seen as one of the factors contributing to the relatively poor performance of Britain's economy in relation to Other industrialised countries.