Family Practice Vol. 16, No. 1, 1-3
© Oxford University Press 1999
Editorial |
Individual case studies in primary health care
Department of Psychology, Ridley Building, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE1 7RU, UK. e-mail: bruce.charlton@ ncl.ac.uk
Charlton BG. Editorial: Individual case studies in primary health care. Family Practice 1999; 16: 1–3.
Introduction
The individual study case is probably the most neglected of clinical research methods. Yet case studies come in many shapes and sizes, with many objectives and methodologies ranging from the philosophical, through the accidental, to the formally scientific.1 This article is intended to demonstrate that there is a case study for almost every purpose and temperament.
Sacks and the single case study— moral reflection
Oliver Sacks is perhaps the greatest current exponent of the case study as ‘moral philosophy’. Although Sacks includes a great deal of scientific background and clinical detail in his accounts of neurological patients, the accounts are primarily aimed at a general audience. Their purpose would implicitly appear to be moral reflection rather than medical education or scientific research.
Sacks' cases are typically people who have strange neurological conditions with profound implications for their identity and sense of self. For example, in the eponymous story from The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat
Strange but true—the hypothesis-generating case study
Clinical discovery
Serendipity
The planned case study
Conclusion
References