Thursday, September 15, 2005

A Small Percentage

I've been waiting for my two patients to show up for thirty minutes now. the only human contact I've had was a case I'm following. Today's case decided to discontinue all of his medications because he heard they could damage his liver.

"where did you hear this?"

It seems pharmaceutical advertising is having the beneficial effect of convincing patients that Death is not a suitable side effect. This makes the third patient this month who self discontinued his own medication. Well, you know what they say, patient rights.

"you know side effects only happen to a small minority of the patients taking a certain medication"

I bang my head at the wall, smile, bang some more. Why do they come to see me.

I've find this concept amazing. They come to see me. I give recommendations. They completely ignore my recommendation. And then they come to see me at the next appointment. I do my voodo spell, they feel all better. Completely ignore my recommendation.

"but doc, I don't want any medication that can damage my body"

And the search continues for the perfect medication that doesn't exist. I explain that it's a tradeoff. You take the bad with the good and you have to weigh the risk versus the benefit. I explain that I didn't get any last night, the wife had a "headache", the kid didn't sleep, she has a fever, I couldn't sleep. Please take your medication. I bang my head some more.