Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Doctors 'often defy' their own treatment advice (USA)

Doctors 'often defy' their own treatment adviceMany doctors recommend treatments to their patients that they would not use themselves, a US study suggests. Experts asked nearly 1,000 US physicians to consider a medical scenario and pick a treatment. But when doctors were asked to imagine themselves as the patient their answers differed significantly. Doctors were far more likely to opt for a therapy carrying a higher chance of death but better odds of side-effect free survival, for example. But for their patients, doctors tended to pick a treatment that erred on the side of survival, regardless of the quality of life, Archives of Internal Medicine reports

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