A Country Doctor Reads:

Sometimes I come across items in medical journals, books, magazines or newspapers that intrigue me or seem worth sharing – that’s my purpose behind “A Country Doctor Reads”.

A few recent samples:

ADHD in France and the USA

I have speculated before about why the U.S. has such a high incidence of ADHD and to what extent this is because of environmental influences. A blog I just came across touches on the same subject.

Jeff Kane, M.D. writes about the difference between French and American child-rearing in an interesting post. His blog has a lot of wisdom and interesting commentary.

via HEALTHCARE AS THOUGH PEOPLE MATTER.

FDA: No Monitoring Needed When Prescribing Statins

One of the most common visits in primary care may soon go away. The quarterly lipid profile and liver function check is unnecessary according to the FDA. The new guidelines have a new twist, however: There is more emphasis on the possibility of changes in cognitive function among patients taking statins.

via Press Announcements > FDA announces safety changes in labeling for some cholesterol-lowering drugs.

When Stumped for a Diagnosis, Examine the Patient!

The new issue of The Lancet tells a story of a woman with a stubborn cough, unrelieved by standard treatments and no closer to a diagnosis even after extensive testing. When someone finally examined the whole patient, she turned out to have an obvious breast cancer. The cough, it turned out, was caused by pulmonary lymphangitic carcinomatosis.

The authors propose the term “McCoy’s Syndrome”, after the physician in Star Trek. He relied solely on technology to diagnose his patients. We should not, the authors say:

“Unfortunately, McCoy’s syndrome seems to be widespread in the health system at the moment, striking mainly doctors, but also other health-care professionals and even patients. The most characteristic feature of the syndrome is the excessive faith in medical technology, particularly imaging. Other components that might also be present are the absence of clinical reasoning and of establishing emotional links with sick people. Some cases also show incapacity to think about common diagnostic hypotheses, particularly in university hospital environments.”

McCoy’s syndrome: a new medical entity : The Lancet.

A Country Doctor Writes: