Por más de 40 años, él ha realizado una de los trabajos más difíciles en medicina; 4 000 de sus pacientes podrían haber sido descartados como “causas perdidas”. Sin embargo, él irradia optimismo; sus historias y experiencias reflejan una creencia en el potencial humano para cambiar y crecer, y una vocación para ayudar a que sus pacientes lo hagan.

En la actualidad es un experto en adicciones reconocido internacionalmente; en 1976, el Dr. Ricardo González fundó en Cuba el primer servicio de atención a pacientes para el abuso de sustancias en el Hospital Psiquiátrico “Eduardo B. Ordaz” en La Habana, un programa que él dirigió hasta el año pasado. Este es ahora el centro nacional de referencia para otros 17 programas de este tipo, dos más en La Habana y uno en cada provincia cubana. Además, sirve como un modelo para los centros de tratamiento que atienden a viajeros internacionales (sin duda el más conocido de ellos, Diego Maradona, el astro del fútbol argentino): dos en la provincia de Holguín y uno en la provincia de Santiago, con otro que se está desarrollando en el Centro de Salud Internacional “Las Praderas” en La Habana.

Los 25 libros del Dr. González sobre psiquiatría, ética médica y adicciones dan fe de una prolífica carrera en la investigación y la práctica. Ahora él continúa el trabajo “desde su jubilación” como profesor consultante y psiquiatra en el servicio de adicción que fundó, y también preside la Comisión Nacional de Ética Médica de Cuba. En esta entrevista, el Dr. González comparte ideas a partir de sus años de experiencia tratando el abuso de sustancias, y nos habla sobre las repercusiones y el manejo de las adicciones en Cuba.

For over 40 years, he has done one of the most difficult jobs in medicine; 4000 of his patients are among those many might write off as “lost causes.” Yet he radiates optimism, his stories and experience reflecting a belief in the human potential to change and grow and a vocation to help his patients do so.

Now an internationally recognized expert on addictions, in 1976 Dr González founded Cuba’s first patient service for substance abuse at the Eduardo B. Ordaz Psychiatric Hospital in Havana, a program he directed until last year. It is now the national reference center for another 17 such programs, two more in Havana and one in every other Cuban province. In addition, it serves as a model for treatment centers catering to international patients (undoubtedly the most well known among them Diego Maradona, the Argentine soccer star): two in Holguin Province and one in Santiago Province, with another being developed at Las Praderas International Health Center in Havana.

Dr González’s 25 books on psychiatry, medical ethics and addictions attest to a prolific career in research and practice. Today, he continues to work “from retirement” as consulting professor and psychiatrist in the addiction service he founded, and also chairs Cuba’s National Medical Ethics Commission. In this interview, Dr González shares insights from his years of experience addressing substance abuse, as well as on repercussions and management of such conditions in Cuba.

When Cuba was hit by a neuropathy epidemic two decades ago, Dr Rosaralis Santiesteban was one of the Cuban health professionals who played a key role in its management, as reflected in a recent issue of Seminars in Ophthalmology.[1] She was well prepared for her part: trained in medicine at the University of Havana before completing a residency in ophthalmology and eventually a doctorate in medical sciences, she has received multiple honors for her research, publishing and teaching. In 2007, she was named Distinguished Researcher by the Cuban Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment. She has headed the Department of Neuro-ophthalmology at Cuba’s Neurology and Neurosurgery Institute since 1977.

Now called Cuban Epidemic Neuropathy, the 1990s epidemic that affected over 50,000 Cubans is the largest and best-documented of its kind in history. As researchers pressed to unravel the mystery of its etiology to hasten the epidemic’s end, Dr Santiesteban recognized that similar outbreaks had occurred during Cuba’s wars of independence in the late 1800s—described in her book, Epidemias y Endemias de neuropatía en Cuba.[2] In the proverbial eye of the storm during the 1990s epidemic, she shares her reflections below on the context, causes, evolution and lessons learned from the challenge that put Cuba’s health system to the test.