Hi as a psychiatrist I read this with interest; as a non philosopher the terminology is a little tricky but I guess that's how the patients feel right? I may be wrong but is Diane O'Leary conflating the dismissive attitude of many doctors to medically unexplained symptoms with an intentional refusal to investigate? They're medically unexplained because investigations don't show anything....I agree doctors should be humble and admit that our current knowledge is not the sum of everything and that large numbers of symptoms don't appear to correlate with medical investigations and that medicine has nothing to offer them....rather than implying or saying outright that the person is mad. There generally are no treatments which are being withheld. A bit of medical humility would IMHO go a lot further to helping patients than philosophy in this debate
Hi as a psychiatrist I read this with interest; as a non philosopher the terminology is a little tricky but I guess that's how the patients feel right? I may be wrong but is Diane O'Leary conflating the dismissive attitude of many doctors to medically unexplained symptoms with an intentional refusal to investigate? They're medically unexplained because investigations don't show anything....I agree doctors should be humble and admit that our current knowledge is not the sum of everything and that large numbers of symptoms don't appear to correlate with medical investigations and that medicine has nothing to offer them....rather than implying or saying outright that the person is mad. There generally are no treatments which are being withheld. A bit of medical humility would IMHO go a lot further to helping patients than philosophy in this debate