Research and the Ulcer Problem

This paperbacked monograph contains a readable account of the present status of peptic ulcer and chronic ulcerative colitis in the United States. It is written for the intelligent layman and the physician. The discussion of the scientific aspects of these diseases and their etiology and pathogenesis is necessarily brief and incomplete; the statistical data indicates that their enormous economic importance will probably prove startling to workers in the field. A conservative estimate is made that the total economic loss due to these ulcerative disorders is over one-half billion dollars per year. In sharp contrast to this figure, the author estimates that in 1955 a total of 5 million dollars was spent in the United States in the investigation of all diseases of the digestive system combined. It is pointed out that there has been no fund-raising, disease-oriented, organization exclusively devoted to the problems of patients with peptic ulcer and chronic