Polydipsia Polydipsia Polydipsia is excessive thirst or excess drinking. The word derives from the Greek () "very thirsty", which is derived from (, "much, many") + (, "thirst"). Polydipsia is a nonspecific symptom in various medical disorders. It also occurs as an abnormal behaviour in some non-human animals, such as in birds. This symptom is characteristically found in diabetics, often as one of the initial symptoms, and in those who fail to take their anti-diabetic medications or whose condition is poorly controlled. It can also be caused by a change in the osmolality of the extracellular fluids of the body, hypokalemia,
Shared decision-making in medicine instances where the term "shared decision-making" was employed was in a report on ethics in medicine by Robert Veatch in 1972. It was used again in 1982 in the "President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research." This work built on the increasing interest in patient-centredness and an increasing emphasis on recognising patient autonomy in health care interactions since the 1970s. Some would even claim that a general paradigm shift occurred in the 1980s in which patients became more involved in medical decision-making than before. For example, a 2007 review of 115 patient