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by Joseph E. Davis, 340 pp, paper, $27.50, ISBN 0-226-13781-3, Chicago, Ill, University of Chicago Press, 2005.

JAMA. 2005;293:3110-3111.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

The ways of sociologists differ from those of physicians (and biologists and other "hard" scientists), so readers of JAMA might be impatient with or even confused by the premise of Accounts of Innocence. Physicians typically think that their beliefs (eg, antibiotic A is better than antibiotic B for treating a particular infection) and belief systems (eg, some diseases are caused by bacteria and viruses) are based on data that have been properly collected through controlled experiments. Sociologists, however, think that some beliefs—even in medicine—are not based on research data at all but are simply opinions expressed in the media or by influential spokespersons, which are adopted by both the general public and the professional community. To bluntly state the sociological perspective, medical beliefs are part science and part contemporary myth and legend.

Pediatrics provides a dramatic instance of this phenomenon. With the famous 1962 JAMA article by C. Henry . . . [Full Text of this Article]

William Bernet, MD, Reviewer
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
Nashville, Tenn
william.bernet@vanderbilt.edu