Letters
Fear in overdiagnosis and overtreatment
Beware of medicalising the fear of uncertainty and death
BMJ 2014; 349 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g7077 (Published 25 November 2014) Cite this as: BMJ 2014;349:g7077- Louisa Polak, general practitioner and PhD student1
- 1North Hill Medical Group, Colchester CO1 1DZ, UK
- louisa.polak{at}lshtm.ac.uk
I strongly second Heath’s call for clinicians to be more tolerant of uncertainty, and agree with her that this requires courage, particularly given the prevalent culture of blame.1
Nobody could disagree with the recommendation that people should be screened for their potential to benefit from risk reducing interventions “only when medical care is appropriate and will produce …
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