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medpundit |
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Tuesday, November 26, 2002They found that 63 percent of the African Americans and 38 percent of whites surveyed believed doctors often prescribe medication as a way of experimenting on people without their knowledge. One-quarter of blacks and 8 percent of whites thought their doctors had given them treatment at some time as part of an experiment without their permission. I've had patients insinuate something like that when we have to go through a few different blood pressure medications to find the right one for them. I don't hear that as much now that I reinforce at every visit that this is a trial and error approach, but it's the only approach we have. Still, the lack of trust found in the survey is disturbing. Trust is the cornerstone of any doctor-patient relationship. A patient who doesn't trust his doctor is never likely to do well. No trust means poorer compliance with medication and less willingness to be forthcoming when giving a history. Perhaps the Tuskegee experiments had something to do with it, but those were so long ago, I doubt it. Could the flawed, sensationalized reports like those on errors in medicine and racism in medicine put out by the Institute of Medicine have something to do with this? Most definitely. Ideas have consequences. Even those based on falsehoods. posted by Sydney on 11/26/2002 08:20:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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