Patients’ thoughts and beliefs
When patients come to my clinic, sometimes they talk to me about their thoughts about medicine. Examples of these thoughts (and my answer to these thoughts) are:
1- pelviabdominal ultrasonography can diagnose diseases of the stomach and colon.
My answer: it is very difficult for most of the available ultrasonography machines, the ultrasonography can diagnose diseases of stomach and kidney in advanced diseases and sometimes with highly professional radiologists and with highly advanced machines.
2-Tea is a cause for the elevation of arterial blood pressure.
My answer: to my knowledge, tea is neither a cause for the elevation of blood pressure nor a risk factor for hypertension.
3- Antibiotics are a cause for fatigue and it needs good nutrition.
My answer: antibiotics may be a cause of fatigue as a side effect of some antibiotics, but it is not the role and there is an exaggeration of its role in fatigue and it needs good nutrition is not the clear point.
4- Some patients say that insulin treatment for diabetes mellitus is a cause of eye problems and it is better to treat diabetes mellitus with oral anti-diabetic drugs.
My answer: there are no side effects of insulin concerning the eye. The cause of eye problems may be related to diabetes mellitus itself.
5- Honey and herbal remedies can treat rheumatoid arthritis.
My answer: I didn’t have enough data. Some herbal may relieve the pain of arthritis but we need to know if there are any contraindications for the usage of this herbal. I mean if this herbal is toxic to the body organs or not, second what is the dose that I can use, third for how long, fourth if there is an available medication that is approved via FDA and gives the same effect of these remedies, fifth if there are any studies that approve the effect of these herbal remedies, sixth, these herbal remedies are prescribed by a medical specialist only.
6- HCV patients who take direct-acting antiviral drugs for the treatment of HCV infection say that why not we stop our treatment when our HCV PCR after 4 weeks of treatment as their quantitative H-CV PCR below detection limits.
My answer: according to the available clinical studies the regimen is 12 or 24 weeks. In the future, the treatment regimen may be shortened but up till now, the regimen must be completed to get a better success rate.
7- Some patients come to the hospital due to abdominal pain for example, and after taking the proper treatment for their medical condition they come complaining of the same abdominal pain and claim that the cause of their pain is the prescribed medications.
My answer: there are many possibilities; it is the same complaint of the patient, the prescribed treatment still working, the patient condition was wrongly diagnosed, the prescribed drugs are the cause of pain.
8- Some patients say that ̎If the patient is cured, it is the luck of the doctor ̎ and I say that ̎ If the patient is cured, it is the luck of the patient then the luck of the doctor ̎
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