Doctors have been treating the symptoms of their patients, often before they know the cause, for centuries. But as medicine has gained sophistication and precision, we've slowly demanded more of our doctors. We want them to treat us, but also to know what we have, and why we have it, and how to treat and cure it.
Increasingly sophisticated diagnostic tools aid their work. But have we gone too far?
In demanding what ails us have a name and clear pattern of cause, effect, and treatment, we tend to dismiss conditions which we know exist but that we don't fully understand. There are many conditions whose sufferers share a common constellation of symptoms with no obvious origins or easily defined treatment.
Without legitimacy, the condition lacks resources for research and also the understanding and acceptance that elevate it out of the realm of a psychosomatic ailment.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is one of those illnesses that has been around for a long time but never gained the legitimacy it deserved before the Institute of Medicine - which is the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences and known for its unbiased research - renamed it. Dr. Ellen Clayton says there is strong physiologic evidence supporting Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disease as a disease and historically, we've always recognized disorders as diseases before fully understanding its origin and treatment. We need not wait until we know everything about a condition before we take it seriously.
This is a good thing. With so many people suffering from ailments not easily defined, we shouldn't wait to recognize conditions when acknowledgement brings much needed resources of not only money, but acceptance.
Leave your comments below, email us at colin@wnpr.org , or tweet us @wnprcolin
Colin McEnroe was the host of today's show. Chion Wolf was the technical producer. Greg Hill tweeted for us.
GUESTS:
- Gary Greenberg is a psychotherapist in Connecticut and the author of “The Book of Woe”
- Barron Lerner is a professor of medicine and population health at NYU Langone Medical Center, a medical historian and the author of “The Good Doctor: A Father, A Son, and the Evolution of Medical Ethics
- Ellen Clayton is a professor of pediatrics and law, co-founder, Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University. She’s also on the Institute of Medicine Council
