Are Doctors Making Us Sick?
Posted by Josh on January 30th, 2007Filed under: Health & Safety, In the News, Parenthood.
A New York Times essay from a few weeks ago, entitled What’s Making Us Sick Is an Epidemic of Diagnoses, is causing a bit of a stir, at least in the pediatrics blogging community. The three docs who authored the essay argue that the medical community has become overzealous in diagnosing disease. They write:
Perhaps most worrisome is the medicalization of childhood. If children cough after exercising, they have asthma; if they have trouble reading, they are dyslexic; if they are unhappy, they are depressed; and if they alternate between unhappiness and liveliness, they have bipolar disorder. While these diagnoses may benefit the few with severe symptoms, one has to wonder about the effect on the many whose symptoms are mild, intermittent or transient.
It’s gotten to the point, the authors say, that it has become abnormal to be considered healthy. Consider the explosion of pharmaceutical ads that target every little malady that, in the past, would have simply been tolerated. They ask, “Exactly what are we doing to our children when 40 percent of summer campers are on one or more chronic prescription medications?” Further, the authors wonder about the health effects of constantly being told that you’re sick: “Simply labeling people as diseased can make them feel anxious and vulnerable — a particular concern in children.”
Follow the link above and read the rest for yourself. It might make you feel better.
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c353t Garth Brooks Rington - http://www.imeem.com/people/mP2N-B7/blogs/2008/07/14/KGWlLkO6/garth_brooks_rington
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