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[martinuzz]

With all the nice new healthcare skills, wouldn't it be nice to have some more work for our medical dwarves?
Not that I'd want to see DF turn into Dwarf Theme Hospital, but I think it would add nice flavour, and fun, to have some diseases.

New skill/job: Pharmacy / pharmacist
This dwarf makes various medicines at the alchemist's workshop, and administers those to diagnosed patients.
There's three types of drugs:
- liquids; stored in glass vials, and administered with a syringe, by the pharmacist. Wound dressing is required after this
- pills; administered by the pharmacist, no wound dressing required.
- gauze; made by pharmacist, administered by wound dresser

(Not-so-)new workshop: Alchemist's workshop

New item: syringe
needs: clear glass, steel, fuel, glass furnace

Medicine:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

New item: painkillers (pill)
needs: Dimple cups, animal horn/hoof, alchemist's workshop

New item: strong painkillers (liquid)
needs: Dimple cups, glass vial, gnomeblight, alchemist's workshop

New item: antibiotics (liquid)
needs: Tower cap log, plump helmets, gnomeblight, glass vial, alchemist's workshop

New item: activated charcoal (pills)
needs: refined coal, alchemist's workshop

New item: stimulants (pills)
needs: fungiwood log, spore tree log, animal horn/hoof, alchemist's workshop

New item: tranquilizer (liquid)
needs: plump helmets, gnomeblight

New item: healing gauze
needs: silk cloth, golden salve, alchemist's workshop

Diseases:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

infection
cause: medical mistreatment / bad water (?)
effect: death
treatment: injection with antibiotics, treatment with healing gauze afterwards
effect of treatment: two 25% chances of curing infection, one for the antibiotics, if those fail, another one for the gauze. Chance of healing modified by antibiotics/ healing gauze quality.

Plump helmet head
cause: small chance every time a dwarf wakes up
description: "has a purple head"
effect: every dwarf that he socializes with, gets a decent happy though: "laughed at a plump helmet head recently". However, the affected dwarf gets a small negative thought every time he is laughed at: "Was ridiculed recently". Subsequently, has a chance of forming a grudge against dwarves laughing at him
treatment: stimulants
effect of treatment: cures 100%

Gutbloat
cause: small chance every time a dwarf wakes up
description "must have eaten something bad"
effect: the affected dwarf throws up every now and then, covering your dungeon in puke, and causing the dwarf to progress a step from hungry>>..>>starving whenever he throws up.
cure: activated charcoal
effect of cure: cures 100%

Beard Rot
cause: small chance every time a dwarf wakes up
description: "has no beard!"
effect: affected dwarf gets a one-time big unhappy thought when discovering his beard is gone: "was upset to have his beard fall out"; other dwarves socializing with the affected dwarf get a negative thought: "talked with a beardless dwarf lately". Affected dwarf progresses a step towards "does not care about anything anymore" everytime another dwarf gets the bad thought.
cure: antibiotics, stimulants
effect of cure: two 50% chances for curing, one for the antibiotics, one for the stimulants, modified by their respective qualities.

Fumbling Fingers
cause: small chance every time a dwarf wakes up, 50% chance when progressing a step on the alcohol deprivation scale, Drug Addiction, Cave Fever
description: "has shaky hands"
effect: affected dwarf can only make items of standard quality
cure: tranquilizer
effect of cure: cures 100%

Cave Fever
cause: small chance when a dwarf wakes up
description: "is feeling feverish"
effect: dwarf needs to take more breaks. 50% of getting Fumbling Fingers every time the dwarf wakes up. 25% chance of infecting other dwarves, when socializing with them.
cure: antibiotics, painkillers
effect of cure: 75% chance of cure, modified by antibiotics' quality

Drug addiction
cause: 10% chance when being given painkillers, 75% chance when given strong painkillers
description: "is addicted"
effect: every time a dwarf suffering from addiction wakes up, 2 checks are made; one to see if he needs drugs (50%), giving a negative thought: "is sweating a lot", and another to see if he gets the Fumbling Fingers disease (25%).
cure: tranquilizer, then strong painkillers. Only when the dwarf makes his wake-up check and 'needs drugs', can he be treated for the addiction.
effect of cure: tranquilizer has a 50% chance of curing, modified by it's quality. (Strong painkiller has 75% chance to undo the cure, by regaining the addiction)

Overdose
cause: 5% chance when being administered strong painkillers, or tranquilizers
description: "is hallucinating"
effect: affected dwarf works as if maximum alcohol-deprived. Every time dwarf sleeps, large chance of death
cure: activated charcoal
effect of cure: cures 100%

Cave Rash
cause: small chance when a dwarf wakes up. 5% chance when exposed to miasma
description: "can't reach his back to scratch"
effect: 75% chance of infecting other dwarves when socializing with them. 25% chance of having the disease progress to Cave Rot when sleeping before it is treated. No other direct effects.
cure: antibiotics, painkillers
effect of cure: 75% chance of curing, modified by antibiotics' quality

Cave Rot
cause: progressive state of Cave Rash (Dwarf no longer suffers from Cave Rash once the Rot starts, only the Rot)
description: "has contracted the dread Rot"
effect: works as if maximum alcohol-deprived. Every time the dwarf sleeps, after contracting the rot, large chance of death.
cure: strong painkillers, stimulants, antibiotics.
effect of cure: 50% chance of cure, modified by antibiotics' quality

Alcohol intolerance
cause: small chance when a dwarf wakes up
description: "Has been feeling very un-dwarfly"
effect: dwarf will only drink water (leading to alcohol deprivation eventually)
cure: painkillers
effect of cure: 25% chance of cure, modified by painkillers' quality

Gaseous Guts
cause: small chance when a dwarf wakes up
description: "Can't hold his gases"
effect: dwarf spreads miasma. Other dwarves socializing with the affected dwarf get a bad thought; "was farted upon", and have a small chance of forming a grudge with the affected dwarf.
cure: activated charcoal, antibiotics
effect of cure: cures 100%

Various poisonings
cause: existing poison mechanics (FB for example)
description: "is poisoned"
effect: existing various poison effects
cure: activated charcoal
effect of cure: 25% chance of cure, modified by charcoal's quality

Elf syndrome
cause: small chance everytime a dwarf steps outside. Dwarves with cave adaptation are immune.
description:"Is feeling claustrophobic"
effect: reverse of cave adaptation: affected dwarves that are inside, throw up and get an unhappy thought: "was nauseated by the cramped space lately"
cure: stimulants, tranquilizer
effect of cure: two 50% chances for curing, modified by stimulant's and tranquilizer's qualities.

N.B.:
-When I use the term 'socializing' I refer to activities that lead to the increase of social skills
-since both Gnomeblight and Golden Salve see a use here, they *must* be available, either from the dwarven parent civ on embark, or at least guarantueed with elf/human traders

Immunity:
When a dwarf is succesfully cured from Cave Rot, he becomes immune to Cave Rash, and to Cave Fever.


How it could work:
Most medicines will be administered by the pharmacist. This could work similarly to the sherrif dragging prisoners to the prison: First, the sick dwarf heads to the hospital to be diagnosed. Then, the pharmacist picks up the medicines required, and proceeds to haul the sick dwarf to his office, and administers the drugs there.

Exceptions to this are strong painkillers and healing gauze. Those have to be administered by a surgeon, and a wound dresser, respectively.
Speaking of, strong painkillers should always be used before surgery (with a chance for drug addiction as a nice complication)

Whenever a treatment fails, your dwarves can try again, unless the patient dies

As for modifiers to healing chances based on medicine quality, I was thinking the following:
standard: -5%
well-crafted: base
finely-crafted: +5%
superior: +10%
exceptional: +15%
masterwork: +20%

Seeing diseases are already planned, I gave them some thought. Give me yours

[Medicine Man]

I like this idea,but some of the cures are just plain stupid sounding (sorry but tranqilisers to cure drug addiction?) and some of the diseases just sound a bit stupid and too common,also infectious miasma would be cool it could be spread by coughing,infected vomit,infected blood or corpses.

[thijser]

Well gnomeblight is planned to become a strong poison I don't think you would want that in a medicine.
Futhermore antibiotics weren't known at the time (some people care for this but not me just be prepared for it.)
In general I think dwarfs would need their own medicine not human like medicines.

However you might be interested in the medical herb topic
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=59211.msg1329275#msg1329275

It might be a good idea to add diagnostics to this. If you only got a dabling diagnostic they might mistake one disease for another. If we take your diseases that might be that a medical dwarf mistakes Gaseous Guts for Various poisonings. The wrong treadment wouldn't work at all and it might even lead to a grudge against the medical dwarf if he continues to make mistakes.

Now diseases: some of them are quite good but for example Beard Rot is something that dwarfs would just life on with it's not that oncommon for dwarfs to have be beardless (I estemate that some 10% doesn't have a beard.) Futhermore for dwarfs alcohol is more basic then water so it's a bit weird that they are no longer able to drink it.

[Medicine Man]

Maybe if your medical dwarf has a massive grudge against somebody and operates on them they could do a shit job of it?or maybe kill them?Or even give them a worse condition?

[ZebioLizard2]

antibiotics weren't known at the time (some people care for this but not me just be prepared for it.)

Yeah antibiotics weren't known to the PEOPLE themselves, but there were common cures that kept some people alive, some people realized certain plants had medicinal properties and ground them up (ancient china for example, or japan) While the dwarves would just be doing things their fathers or mothers knew, we know their curing. We could also make snake oil type things too, dwarves that are bad pharmicutals giving wrong antidotes, giving wrong medicinals and the like, or learning from their mistakes
(Oops, sorry Urist McSnakebite, I guess running was a bad idea to cure yourself afterall! Sorry Urist McFrostbitten, Rubbing snow into that just made it worse.)

[Foehamster]

Pills didn't come around until the 20th century. Instead they had extracts, elixirs and tonics, which are all the same thing. Whatever the medicine was dissolved in alcohol. They also had herbal teas and the like (see Hungry Water).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elixir#Composition

[ZebioLizard2]

Then what would one use for like ground up type cures? (Referring to such as ground up plants being bound within something and eaten) Would that just be referred to as powder?

[Foehamster]

Then what would one use for like ground up type cures? (Referring to such as ground up plants being bound within something and eaten) Would that just be referred to as powder?

I don't see why not.

Also balms/liniments for topical applications.

List of ways to take your medicine: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmaceutical_form

[kiffer.geo]

I'd say he's be an apothecary just to keep in theme...

diseases are already planed, aren't they?
Leeches applied to promote beard regrowth after catching the dreaded elf-pox... Don't worry it's only a name it's actually caused by a tiny parasite...

[Medicine Man]

*Urist Mcozzy,legendary musician has developed Fumbling Fingers!*
Sorry I just had to write that.

[WormSlayer]

I'm still a bit disappointed sick dorfs drink water instead of a stupidly strong spirit!

[TheyTarget]

Well gnomeblight is planned to become a strong poison I don't think you would want that in a medicine.
Futhermore antibiotics weren't known at the time (some people care for this but not me just be prepared for it.)
In general I think dwarfs would need their own medicine not human like medicines.

Penicillin comes from Penicillium Chrysogenum which is a mold that grows inside on food. Its only reasonably that a race that lives inside 90% of the time would discover that before humans would. And elves probably never would.

I mean they live in caves and eat fungus.

[TheGlassSpider]

The diseases and medicines are a great idea, but may I suggest that before going whole hog on that, we get the kinks worked out of the medical system first - I'm begging - please. I've had three chief medical dwarves of varying capabilities and not a single one of them will deign to diagnose a patient when he could stand around looking at a rough-hewn wall, even though they have a fully functional and well stocked hospital and absolutely NO other job whatsoever. :-(

I would like to kindly suggest that the medical personnel be programmed in a similar manner to the military - giving the capability to order the medical dwarves to do something immediately (like diagnose the dwarven baby who's been bleeding on her mother's back for a season now).

Thanks for the suggestion thread. I apologize in advance if this suggestion has been made elsewhere - I did search for it, but didn't see it.

[drkpaladin]

I know someone could probably easily mod it in there, but being able to request soap from caravans would be nice. I second the suggestion to have doctor dwarves be more highly motivated to actually look at a patient.

As it is currently, I miss the old system where one of my female dwarves had her eye ripped out in combat, which induced labor on the battlefield, strapping the baby to her back and continuing to fight, being unable to care for the baby because of passing out from pain, and solving the issue by slapping a mining pick in her hand and forcing her to slowly toughen up through backbreaking labor to the point where she was finally able to ignore the constant debilitating pain and care for herself and the child.  It was just more dwarvenly.

Stitching together body parts to make tireless undead servants to haul stone and guard children from snatchers would be a neat way to train up doctor skills when no one is hurt.

[smariot]

Well gnomeblight is planned to become a strong poison I don't think you would want that in a medicine.

Haha, dwarven homeopathy.