Saints and "Possession": A Case Review Bordering Ethnopsychiatry and Cultural Diversity.

The migrations of modern times have exposed psychiatrists and other medical experts to elements from other cultures which have to be recognised and discerned from pathology. In the present paper, we offer an overview of both historical and modern witnessings of various kinds of "possession", with shedding light on the whole process of diagnostics-taking into account all aspects that make a person as an individual: with particular emphasis on origin, lifestyle, moral values, and ethical norms what is sometimes easily associable with culture-bound phenomena, and sometimes overstepping the border of clinical disturbance, to maximise the possibility of recovery.

Zvonimir Maretic (1921-1989): The History of Discovery of the First European Antilatrodectic Serum and its Preparator in the Occasion Of the 30th Anniversary of His Death

Zvonimir Maretic was the pioneer of the study of venomous animals and plants, toxicology, and tourism medicine. His achievements have been recognized, but insufficiently researched. His work covers a broad range of biomedical sciences: from public health, ecology, and environmental protection, to epidemiology and infectology. Maretic was one of the founding members of the International Society on Toxinology and the Toxicon journal's first Editorial Board. He was the first in Europe to prepare the antilatrodectic serum and to successfully apply the weever and scorpionfish antiserum on humans. This brief note tries to commemorate the achievements of Maretic, up to now poorly recognized and insufficiently researched.

Increasing burden of melanoma in Croatia.

Melanoma consists 4-5% of all skin cancers, but it contributes to 71-80% of skin cancers deaths. It is controversial whether worldwide increases in melanoma incidence represent a true epidemic but at the same time that dramatic increase in incidence occur in setting of relatively stable mortality trends, observed in Croatia also. The majority of authors accept that main risk factors for melanoma relate to environmental exposure and genetics with epidemiologic studies linking sun exposure to melanoma development. Data were obtained from Croatian cancer register for patients diagnosed between 1999 and 2008, for malignant melanoma of the skin (ICD-10 code C43) at national level and from 2003 to 2008, at the County level (Primorsko-goranska County). Melanoma incidence nearly doubled in males from 8.75 to 13.4/10(5) per year, fold in females from 9.1 at the start of observation to the end of 12.0/10(5) per year in Croatia. Melanoma incidence rates were much more higher for Primorsko-goranska County with range from 10.1 to 17.5/10(5) per year. The greatest increase of melanoma incidence rates was in males 60 years and over year group at diagnosis. National comparison of variation in cancer incidence by region and age can provide basis for public health prevention. It requires the integration of information on risk factors, incidence that could help to reduce regional inequalities in incidence and reduce the future cancer incidence.