Physicians and patients collaborate to treat symptoms. This is not newsworthy and even sounds appropriate. Isn’t that what doctors are trained to do? It is but I’m not sure this should be a central focus of our healing mission. Treating a symptom is not the same as treating a disease. For example, if an individual is having abdominal discomfort, pain medicine should not be the first responder, even if this would bring the patient relief. Physicians try to understand the cause of the pain which would then guide our therapeutic response. The treatment would differ substantially if the cause of the pain were appendicitis or an ulcer or a kidney stone. Is Fever the Enemy? Often symptoms are regarded as diseases themselves that need to be treated. Over the years, I have been called by nurses hundreds of times to prescribe medicine for patients who were nauseated. Nurses are exceptional professionals, but they are not physicians. They are preoccupied with the pa
MD Whistleblower presents vignettes and commentaries on the medical profession. We peek 'behind the medical curtain' and deliver candor and controversy in every post.