Three Great Sins of the Medical Profession

We’re guilty of them all, but there are extenuating circumstances.

1.  Doctors give treatments that relieve symptoms but don’t cure the underlying problem.

     Sometimes this is the best we can do.  The cure for severe menstrual cramps is menopause, hysterectomy, or pregnancy.  Drugs only relieve the pain, but patients appreciate them.  No doctor cures migraine, asthma, emphysema, osteoporosis, or the flu, but we relieve a great deal of misery.

2.  Doctors order too many tests and prescribe too many drugs.

     Correct, but partly we’re responding to pressure. Most patients with a painful injury assume they need an X-ray, but they don’t.  Those with a high fever, sore throat, swollen glands, cough, or clogged sinuses assume they need an antibiotic, but they usually don’t.  Doctors hate to disappoint patients, so they lean over backwards to “do” something like order a test or prescribe.

3.  Doctors order too few tests and prescribe too few drugs.

     We can’t win.  Some clinics, hospitals, and insurance plans restrict tests and drugs doctors can order.  This infuriates doctors as well as patients, but the sad fact is that experts set up these guidelines to discourage needless tests and wrong or unnecessarily expensive drugs. Mostly, guidelines fail. Even the guilty doctors agree that we do too much.

I’ll reveal three more sins next time.