Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T11:37:15.342Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Overlooked Role of Cases in Causal Attribution in Medicine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Rachel A. Ankeny
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although cases are central to the epistemic practices utilized within clinical medicine, they appear to be limited in their ability to provide evidence about causal relations because they provide detailed accounts of particular patients without explicit filtering of those attributes most likely to be relevant for explaining the phenomena observed. This paper uses a series of recent case reports to explore the role of cases in causal attribution in medical diagnosis. It is argued that cases are brought together by practitioners to generate causal attributions and testable predictions using a manipulability view of causation.

Type
Medical and Social Sciences
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 81 , Issue 5 , December 2014 , pp. 999 - 1011
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

Many thanks to the other participants and the attendees at the 2012 PSA symposium on cases (at which a very early version of this paper was presented), particularly Chris Degeling and Stephen Turner, as well as participants at the Fourth Society for the Philosophy of Science in Practice Conference in Toronto (at which a longer version of this paper was presented as a keynote address), where particularly helpful comments were provided by Hasok Chang, Heather Douglas, Catherine Elgin, Maya Goldenberg, Jim Griesemer, Barton Moffatt, Maureen O’Malley, and Mauricio Suárez. I also have benefitted from the ongoing discussions of reasoning using cases in the context of the workshops held at the London School of Economics and Political Science and the University of Pittsburgh in 2011–12 and especially from collaborating with Mary S. Morgan on this topic, as well as comments from Brian Hurwitz.

Correction: This article was reposted on August 2, 2018, to change all instances of “casual” to “causal.”

References

Ankeny, Rachel A. 2011. “Using Cases to Establish Novel Diagnoses: Creating Generic Facts by Making Particular Facts Travel Together.” In How Well Do Facts Travel? ed. Howlett, Peter and Morgan, Mary S., 252–72. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Berger, Adam J., and Alford, Kevin. 2009. “Cardiac Arrest in a Young Man following Excess Consumption of Caffeinated ‘Energy Drinks.’” Medical Journal of Australia 190:41–43.10.5694/j.1326-5377.2009.tb02263.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cannon, Marianne E., Cooke, Clive T., and McCarthy, James S.. 2001. “Caffeine-Induced Cardiac Arrhythmia: An Unrecognised Danger of Healthfood Products.” Medical Journal of Australia 174:520–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Collingwood, R. 1940. An Essay on Metaphysics. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Forman, John, Aizer, Anthony, and Young, Carl R.. 1997. “Myocardial Infarction Resulting from Caffeine Overdose in an Anorectic Woman.” Annals of Emergency Medicine 29:178–80.10.1016/S0196-0644(97)70326-3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galison, Peter. 2000. “An Accident of History.” In Atmospheric Flight in the Twentieth Century, ed. Galison, Peter and Roland, Alex, 3–44. Dordrecht: Kluwer.10.1007/978-94-011-4379-0_1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gasking, Douglas. 1955. “Causation and Recipes.” Mind 64:479–87.Google Scholar
Gorovitz, Samuel, and MacIntyre, Alastair. 1976. “Toward a Theory of Medical Fallibility.” Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 1:51–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gunja, Naren, and Brown, Jared A.. 2012. “Energy Drinks: Health Risks and Toxicity.” Medical Journal of Australia 196:46–49.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hart, H. L. A., and Honoré, Tony. 1959. Causation in the Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hess, Volker, and Mendelsohn, Andrew. 2010. “Case and Series: Medical Knowledge and Paper Technology, 1600–1900.” History of Science 48:287–314.10.1177/007327531004800302CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunter, Kathryn Montgomery. 1991. Doctors’ Stories: The Narrative Structure of Medical Knowledge. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9780691214726CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunter, Kathryn Montgomery 1996. “‘Don’t Think Zebras’: Uncertainty, Interpretation and the Place of Paradox in Clinical Education.” Theoretical Medicine 17:225–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurwitz, Brian. 2006. “Form and Representation in Clinical Case Reports.” Literature and Medicine 25:216–40.10.1353/lm.2007.0006CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kidd, Michael, and Hubbard, Charlotte. 2007. “Introducing Journal of Medical Case Reports.” Journal of Medical Case Reports 1:1.10.1186/1752-1947-1-1CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pelchovitz, Daniel J., and Goldberger, Jeffrey J.. 2011. “Caffeine and Cardiac Arrhythmias: A Review of the Evidence.” American Journal of Medicine 124:284–89.10.1016/j.amjmed.2010.10.017CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosselli, Diego, and Otero, Andres. 2002. “The Case Report Is Far from Dead (Letter).” Lancet 359:84.10.1016/S0140-6736(02)07311-7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thagard, Paul. 1998. “Explaining Disease: Correlations, Causes, and Mechanisms.” Minds and Machines 8:61–78.10.1023/A:1008286314688CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thagard, Paul 2000. How Scientists Explain Disease. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Whitbeck, Caroline. 1977. “Causation in Medicine: The Disease Entity Model.” Philosophy of Science 44:619–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, Ryan E., Kado, Herman S., Samson, Rohan, and Miller, Alan B.. 2012. “A Case of Caffeine-Induced Coronary Artery Vasospasm of a 17-Year-Old Male.” Cardiovascular Toxicology 12:175–79.10.1007/s12012-011-9152-9CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Woodward, James. 2003. Making Things Happen. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Zimmerman, P. Michael, Puliam, Joseph, Schwengels, Julie, and MacDonald, Steven E.. 1985. “Caffeine Intoxication: A Near Fatality.” Annals of Emergency Medicine 14:1227–29.Google ScholarPubMed