Medically Unexplained Symptoms (MUS) are common across health settings. Physical symptoms which do not fit any known medical illness or where examination and investigation do not reveal any distinct pathology are termed as MUS. Many terms have been used as synonyms to MUS like functional, somatic symptoms, functional overlay, hysterical symptoms, bodily symptoms, and to the extent of labeling it as malingering or factitious. The prevalence of MUS is around 40-49% in primary care patients and likely to more in general hospital settings( Haller et al 2014). Chronic pain syndromes, Chronic fatigue syndromes, fibromyalgia can often be diagnosed to have MUS. MUS are often associated with significant health seeking behaviors, which can add on to …show more content…
There are three important ethical dimensions of while dealing with persons with Medically Unexplained Symptoms (MUS). The first is related to communication about MUS. When the symptoms are causing distress but there is no explanation offered or understood by the physician, it is rather difficult to discuss this with the patient and family member. The family members think that the person is ‘faking’ or reporting a symptom which is absent or unproven by the examination and investigations. This can cause further distress to the person with MUS. On the other hand, the patient would feel tense and more worried about the uncertainty due to the suffering and wondering if this is a sign of some dreadful disease. There are two types of dilemmas faced by health professionals regarding communication in such situations - how to tell and explain (something which has no explanation) and whom to inform - patient or the relatives. The issue of explaining versus not explaining becomes a challenge at times, due to the unique doctor patient relationship, with both the doctor and patient expecting a definitive response. Besides, it is often difficult to decide how to convince the nature of the …show more content…
This raises an ethical question on use of placebo in MUS. In such situations, patient and family may prefer complementary and alternative medicines. Very little scientific research on these complementary or alternative methods casts doubts on their effectiveness. These methods with unproven results however attract the gullible patients with advanced diseases. Interestingly, these systems provide explanation for the bodily symptoms based on their own philosophies. Similarly, numerous traditional therapies are also available, which may attract the patients and their families. Whether these therapies work on placebo effect is
Truth in medicine is a big discussion among many medical professionals about how doctors handle the truth. Truth to a patient can be presented in many ways and different doctors have different ways of handling it. Many often believe that patient’s being fully aware of their health; such as a bad diagnosis, could lead to depression compared to not knowing the diagnosis. In today’s society doctor’s are expected to deliver patient’s the whole truth in order for patients to actively make their own health decisions. Shelly K. Schwartz discusses the truth in her essay, Is It Ever Ok to Lie to Patients?. Schwartz argument is that patients should be told the truth about their health and presented and addressed in a way most comfortable to the patient.
One of the most complex, ever-changing careers is the medical field. Physicians are not only faced with medical challenges, but also with ethical ones. In “Respect for Patients, Physicians, and the Truth”, by Susan Cullen and Margaret Klein, they discuss to great extent the complicated dilemmas physicians encounter during their practice. In their publication, Cullen and Klein discuss the pros and cons of disclosing the medical diagnosis (identifying the nature or cause of the disease), and the prognosis (the end result after treating the condition). But this subject is not easily regulated nor are there guidelines to follow. One example that clearly illustrates the ambiguity of the subject is when a patient is diagnosed with a serious, life-threatening
Ernst, E., & Resch, K. L. (1995). Concept of true and perceived placebo effects. British Medical
If the placebo effect is used on common conditions that are associated with the over the counter drugs, people will most likely stop damaging their livers just because they have a headache, fever, feeling sore, and even as pain relievers. There has been a study on cough medicines being related to the placebo effect. “The major benefit of cough medicines for treatment of cough associated with common cold is related to the placebo effect rather than the pharmacological effect of an active ingredient” (Freeman). The researches have finally concluded that, “the idea is developed that a sweet taste may modulate cough at the level of the nucleus tractus solitaries, possibly by influencing the production of endogenous opioids.” In this study it is shown that the medicines effectiveness for the cough was around the same effectiveness as the ones with the placebo effect. Some key factors that help the results of the placebo effect become effective in this study are “the healer-patient interaction, cultural beliefs about traditional treatments, the environment in which the medicine is administered, the properties of the medicine such as taste, color and smell, advertising and claims made about the efficacy of the medicine, the brand name of the medicine,
Effective communication between patient and clinician is an important aspect to patient care. Proper communication has a direct positive impact on patient care and adversely poor communication has a direct negative impact on patient care. I will define the seven principles of patient-clinician communication and how I apply these communications with my patients. I will also describe the three methods currently being used to improve interdisciplinary communication and the one method that my area of practice currently uses. Then, I will explain the ethical principles that can be applied to issues in patient-clinician communication. And Lastly, the importance of ethics in communication and how patient safety is influenced by good or bad team communication.
In today’s world, many people assume that the latest medical technology and treatments are always the best option. However, all over the world, different techniques for curing diseases and aliments are being used. These methods fall under the category of complementary and alternative medicine.
Homeopathy is natural form of medicine that has been around for over two hundred years. Homeopathy works by treating a symptom with the “principle of similars”.“We should imitate nature...a drug with power to provoke another, artificial disease, as similar as possible, and the former disease will be cured: fight like with like.” (Hahnerman) Homeopathy works by treating a symptom with the “principle of similars”. This means to give a substance that will elicit a healing response. Over the past couple of years, it has been discovered that conventional medicine has serious side effects which can harm a person’s health. Homeopathy was found to be a solution to this problem and can have many positive effects on a person’s health and their lifestyle.
For many centuries, humanity has been on an eternal quest for cures and treatments for many chronic conditions. At the present time, conventional medicine is mostly performed by doctors and other health care professionals, with the extensive use of pharmaceutical drugs, surgery or radiation treatments for disease treatment. Conversely, even though not as popular, complementary and alternative medicine and treatment options are slowly gaining popularity and becoming an addition to traditional medicine.
In critical and complicating medical cases, family members often find it tedious to decide as to what mode or procedure of treatment is idyllic for the recovery of their patient. In such cases, well-qualified and medically educated can play a pivotal role in deciding the kind of treatment that should be given to the patient to enhance its recovery. In a contrary situation a nurse may know that administering a particular drug may improve the patient’s condition, but may be refrained from conducting the required action due to doctor’s absence or non-permission. There are numerous cases through which ethical dilemmas in the profession of nursing can be discussed. Nurses in order to remain within the defined boundaries ...
The placebo effect according to Shapiro, is ‘The nonspecific psychological or physiological therapeutic effect produced by a placebo or the effect of spontaneous improvement attributed to the placebo treatment’ (Shapiro, 1968, cited in Harrington, 1997)
Because there are so much drugs out there that are effective, complementary and alternative therapies are often overlooked. Nonetheless, many people realize that those a lot of those drugs contain major side effects and some of them can be very dangerous. To avoid the adverse reactions from happening, complementary and alternative therapies are available. Even though the therapies are not fully confirmed that they will successfully treat or cure the conditions; however, they have been around for thousands of years and, it is proven that controversy exists when surveys include the complementary therapy as the rate of use of therapies increases dramatically and at times even doubles (Cassileth & Deng, 2003). This article is based on complementary and alternative therapy, and it is mainly focused these therapies used by cancer patients.
The symptoms of somatic symptom disorder can often be hard to notice because it is psychological and many times the pain they express may seem legit. Many people with the somatization pattern of the somatic symptom disorder will experience many long-lasting physical ailments, and these ailments typically have little to no physical basis (Comer, 2014). These people will usually go from doctor to doctor, hospital to hospital just to find some relief or even answers...
Introduction Clinical trials are a gateway to proven practical medical treatment, so it requires accuracy and validity of the outcomes. Placebo control trials are therefore employed in clinical trials as nearly half of academic physicians have answered in a questionnaire that they had used a placebo in their clinical trials (Sherman and Hickner, 2007). To have the higher scientific validity of results on the clinical trials requires that prospective, carefully selected subjects and endpoints, a control group, randomly allocated subjects into a treatment group and a control group, blinded both subject groups and investigators, sufficient sample size, and an approved independent ethics committee and monitoring by data safety and monitoring board to have stronger the scientific validity on the clinical trials (Brody, 1997). The use of placebos will enable more scientifically reliable outcomes. However, unnecessarily or ineffectiveness of placebo use is also claimed, therefore considering appropriate conditions and suitable cases would be needed for placebo use. .
Every year, approximately 230, 000 to 400. 00 deaths are caused by iatrogenic deaths ( in other words, these are deaths caused by wrong medical treatments). Two of the prominent yet some what contrasting types of medicine are, Ayurveda, the Indian traditional medicine, and Modern (aka western) medicine. Both of these have their own processes and methods of healing, which over the years have created their own followers. While Ayurveda addresses the root causes of the disease through identifying the imbalances in the elements, called “Doshas”, it also emphasizes on a spiritual lifestyle which for most people in today's world is a sea change. On the other hand, western medicine addresses the symptoms and provides instant albeit temporary relief for suffering. Needless to say there are more followers of the western medicine due to its immediate impact on subsiding the pain. Out of lack of awareness to the significance of traditional medicine, especially Ayurveda, many doctors and researchers are against the use of Ayurvedic and traditional medicines, which limits the potential of curing certain ailments of patients without additional side effects.
Over the centuries, ancients made use of several treatment methods. Two of them are modern medicine and traditional medicine. Alternative medicine is older than modern one. That effective therapy has used for many centuries on the patience when modern medicine has not occurred in the world. Because it has improved in China, it can be called Traditional Chinese Medicine. In contrast, modern medicine has been in used since 1900’s. In this system, drugs’ testes are done in safety laboratories with care and nicety, and their side effects are located before they are given to the patient. However, sometimes the side effects are not blocked so, people have to take another pill to get better. It makes people to take more chemicals into their bodies. Further, modern medicine has splendid efficacy on the fatal diseases. Even, alternative medicine which people’s ancestors utilized stayed in the background when modern medicine has just found, it works at the present time efficaciously. ****** Therefore, using alternative medicine is more helpful to get better than modern medicine because there are fewer drugs, side effects; there is placebo effect and holistic therapy.