Selected Publications

Browner CH (2006) Some Unexpected Consequences of Implementing Gender “Neutral” Reproductive Programs and Policies Women in International Development ication Series, 284:.

Browner CH and Preloran HM (2006) Culture and Communication in the Realm of Fetal Diagnosis: Unique Considerations for Latino Patients. IN: Genetic Testing: Care, Consent and Liability , NY: John Wiley & Sons 31-44.

Preloran HM, Browner CH and Lieber E (2005) Impact of interpreters' approach on Latinas' use of amniocentesis. Health Educ Behav, 32:599-612. PMID: 16148207

Browner CH (2005) Conscientious autonomy: what patients do vs. what is done to them. Hastings Cent Rep, 35:4-5; author reply 6-7. PMID: 16295253

Levin BW and Browner CH (2005) The social production of health: critical contributions from evolutionary, biological, and cultural anthropology. Soc Sci Med, 61:745-50. PMID: 15950087

Carole H. Browner
Professor
Departments of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences and Anthropology
browner@ucla.edu

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Browner’s current work looks at communication about genetics and genetic testing during clinical encounters between neurologists, movement disorder patients, and their family. Recent rapid developments in genetic medicine have created the expectation that genetic assessments will soon become integral to routine health care. Yet although such practices stand to have far-ranging clinical implications, little empirical attention has been devoted to understanding the processes or consequences of incorporating genetic testing into routine diagnosis and management procedures.

We are studying some of the factors that shape neurologists’ views about and use of genetic information in their clinical practice, and the consequences of their doing so. Our specific aims are: 1) To examine how genetic information associated with adult-onset movement disorders is communicated during routine clinical care. 2) To determine how physicians, patients with symptoms of adult-onset movement disorders, and their families conceptualize and use this information. 3) To explore the degree to which variation in practice setting acts to constrain or promote neurologists’ offers of genetic testing to such patients and their families.

The practice of neurology is an ideal setting in which to explore the processes by which genetic information is incorporated into clinical routines. While standard genetic tests to diagnose specific neurological diseases are becoming increasingly available, it is not yet known when and how these tests are offered to particular patients. In addition, the nature and consequences of this genetic knowledge introduces unique concerns into the standard clinical relationship between neurologists, patients, and families (i.e., psychological distress of learning about a hereditary disease, fears of occupational and/or insurance discrimination, and disclosure of familial risk). Our focus is on why, how, when, and by whom these issues are communicated during medical interactions, and how specific genetic information affects patients’ and family members’ understandings about and management of symptoms.