The “Case Studies” reading (available now under Files > Readings) consists of a collection of Hippocratic physicians’ daily notes and observations on ten different actual patients of theirs in the ancient world. Each case tracks a physician’s observations about a specific patient and the nature and course of the patient’s symptoms and illness.
After reading through all ten cases, your assignment is to pick TWO of the cases and present a “case study” for each one. (The whole assignment should end up being approximately 800 words total, or 400 words per case study.)
For each case study, respond to the following questions/prompts:
Provide a brief overview of the patient’s medical profile. (Approx. 50–100 words per case study)
How does the case study relate to the Hippocratic material we have covered this semester? That is, how might the patient’s disease and symptoms have been interpreted by a Hippocratic doctor in the light of Hippocratic medical theory and practice? How does it relate to their theory of humors, for instance, or their ideas about environment, regimen, and physiology? The most relevant lectures/PowerPoints for this will probably be 4, 5, and 7, although 3 and 6 could also be helpful. (Approx. 250 words per case study)
Optional: If you want to get creative, you can also discuss how other thinkers or schools of thought that we’ve covered (e.g. Plato or the cult of Asclepius) might understand the patient’s case in terms of their own theories).
How might modern medicine diagnose the patient’s condition? That is, based on the case study notes, what disease or condition might the ancient patient actually have been suffering from? Using your own creative thinking and online resources like WebMD, etc., try to ascertain a possible or likely diagnosis (or a few possible or likely diagnoses), and explain how you reached your conclusion. (There are no “right” answers here; the goal is just to come up with a possible diagnosis that you can defend.) (Approx. 50–100 words per case study)
Note on the reading:
The word “crisis,” which appears in several of the case studies, is a technical term in Hippocratic medical theory. According to the Hippocratics, the “crisis” is something like a “turning point” in the progression of a disease: it is a critical point after which the disease will either improve for the better or take a turn for the worse. If a case study concludes by stating that there was a “complete crisis,” that means the disease finally went away and the patient got better.
please work on case 6 and case 10
