Faculty Bibliography

Separation [Motion Picture] -- A 2010 article in the Archives of General Psychiatry reported that depression during pregnancy (made worse by the added stressors of marital discord and poverty) may increase the risk of adverse outcomes, including preterm birth.

Nurse Jackie [Television Program] -- How does being trapped under a heavy pile of books lead to organ failure and death? -- The reality Addictions to opioid painkillers, such as morphine and Percocet (Jackie's main drug), do get worse over time, says Jim Adams, associate professor of pharmacology at USC

Potassium iodide pills work because they fill the thyroid gland with a safer form of iodine, thus helping prevent the uptake of any radioactive iodine that might be encountered

Is it plausible for a patient with bilateral kidney cancer to receive a kidney? -- The reality Emergency decompression of the brain -- known as decompressive craniectomy -- is not uncommon after traumatic brain injury; the procedure was used to treat Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) after she was shot in the head in January, for example.

According to Grill, proper randomization of patients and making sure they don't know whether they got the drug or the placebo are crucial to preventing bias.

127 Hours [Motion Picture] -- How could he then cut off his own arm with a pocket knife without fainting, going crazy with the pain or bleeding to death? -- The reality When faced with certain death, primordial instincts take over, says Dr. Leon Pachter, chief of surgery at New York University Langone Medical Center. Ralston said in his accounts that he had developed a 'compartment syndrome' from the trapped limb -- a condition in which the muscles, nerves and blood vessels are crushed together in a closed space

Little Fockers [Motion Picture] -- [...] beta blockers can sometimes precipitate impotence by preventing the penis from getting all the blood it needs to create and sustain an erection

Accidentally in Love [Television Program] -- Because it's not a life-threatening case, the foundation puts her on a three- to five-year waiting list. The illness presented in the movie looks a lot more like a family of inherited conditions known as retinitis pigmentosa, says Dr. Steven Schwartz, professor of ophthalmology and chief of the retina division at UCLA

Black Swan [Motion Picture] -- According to Malaspina, Nina's affliction is most consistent with a severely neurotic, obsessive-compulsive patient with features of a borderline personality disorder who suffers from 'mini-psychotic episodes.'