nitpickers
26 Oct 2009 02:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mayoraaseiWhat is it with oncology and the unsheathing of claws of EBM (evidence-based medicine) obsessive nuts.
I'm listening to a lecture discussion about the use of psychotherapy/counselling for patients with metastatic breast cancer and I REALLY WANT TO STRANGLE THE GUY WHO KEEPS WASTING EVERYONE'S TIME by asking really pointless questions like, "Has anyone looked into the detrimental effects of this?"
I don't even know how to be sarcastic about it =________=
I don't know where all the vitriolic comments come from, either from this guy about how counselling was shown to improve quality of life of patients although not survival, or from the guy last week who kept clashing with the lecturer over the benefits of acupuncture on pain in terminal illnesses.
As someone said very insightfully..."Even if it's just a massive placebo effect, if it makes them feel better, WHO CARES. If you ram into them that it's not going to work and as a result you make them lose that placebo effect, then you've done more harm than good."
Especially since these patients are going to die whichever way you put it, it's human nature to cling onto anything that might give you hope. Neither of these methods is claiming to be able to treat cancer...if it makes them happier during their time left...seriously... If a patient came to me with terminal cancer and said they want to try acupuncture, I'd be all "go ahead...just keep taking your meds". You tell them you don't expect it to cure them, but if they feel happy about it, don't chain them down with your stacks of journal publications saying they don't work.
Besides, I think there's something fundamentally flawed about the idea of testing acupuncture and most aspects of Chinese medicine by western scientific EBM methods, but that's another rant that involves more research than I can be bothered with.
I'm listening to a lecture discussion about the use of psychotherapy/counselling for patients with metastatic breast cancer and I REALLY WANT TO STRANGLE THE GUY WHO KEEPS WASTING EVERYONE'S TIME by asking really pointless questions like, "Has anyone looked into the detrimental effects of this?"
I don't even know how to be sarcastic about it =________=
I don't know where all the vitriolic comments come from, either from this guy about how counselling was shown to improve quality of life of patients although not survival, or from the guy last week who kept clashing with the lecturer over the benefits of acupuncture on pain in terminal illnesses.
As someone said very insightfully..."Even if it's just a massive placebo effect, if it makes them feel better, WHO CARES. If you ram into them that it's not going to work and as a result you make them lose that placebo effect, then you've done more harm than good."
Especially since these patients are going to die whichever way you put it, it's human nature to cling onto anything that might give you hope. Neither of these methods is claiming to be able to treat cancer...if it makes them happier during their time left...seriously... If a patient came to me with terminal cancer and said they want to try acupuncture, I'd be all "go ahead...just keep taking your meds". You tell them you don't expect it to cure them, but if they feel happy about it, don't chain them down with your stacks of journal publications saying they don't work.
Besides, I think there's something fundamentally flawed about the idea of testing acupuncture and most aspects of Chinese medicine by western scientific EBM methods, but that's another rant that involves more research than I can be bothered with.
