Sad, Mad, or Bad?*

Until the last century, and really to any large extent not until somewhere around the middle of it, people were lucky if their physicians did them more good than harm. But then medicine achieved great triumphs and claimed immense cultural authority and prestige. This happened when biological science enabled physicians to identify specific disease processes and offer targeted, effective treatment.The huge win was antibiotics, which became widely available and effective around the time of World War II. People can argue about whether streptococci or mycobateria are really the ultimate cause of disease, or if it isn't the strength of our immune systems or our conditions of hygiene, but there is no doubt that if you give people the right antibiotics -- at least until lately -- the symptoms caused by infection with these organisms will disappear and the people will be all better.The magic we can work with heart disease, the various diseases in the broad category of cancer, autoimmune diseases, and others, is less wondrous. Still, doctors understand fairly well what is going on with these afflictions and often they can do a lot to extend life, relieve disability and suffering, and even in some cases cure them. Sure, there's diagnostic uncertainty and controversy about the clinical or lab findings that merit a disease label and call for treatment, but these are largely pragmatic arguments over costs and benefits, the interpretation of statistics, or the reliability of observations, r...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Source Type: blogs