Scientific medicine and care relationship: From the therapeutic alliance to the therapeutic effect of the alliance

Bull Cancer. 2021 Jul 7:S0007-4551(21)00161-2. doi: 10.1016/j.bulcan.2021.02.011. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTThe new paradigm of precision medicine in oncology questions today the respective place of evidence-based medicine and doctor-patient relationship. Based on the results of a randomized study comparing the efficacy of a homeopathic molecule in the prevention of nausea and vomiting induced by chemotherapy in non-metastatic breast cancer, this article extends and develops the discussion of maintaining an unresolved tension between medical art and medical science, between care and cure. This tension sets a base for the authors of the therapeutic alliance in medicine, defined as a dialectic constantly adjourned between the alliance of the doctor with the patient and his therapy, and the therapeutic effect of this alliance. Because if a policy or a public opinion were to promote an exclusively rational medicine deprived of the field of relation to care, or on the contrary a medicine based only on clinical sense and intuition, then respectively the ethics of care and the progress of therapy would be threatened. It is advisable to be aware of erring from the truth, amplified today by social networks, as much due to a tide of scientific positivism, as an excess of the "good caring soul". Taking into account the therapeutic alliance makes it possible to no longer oppose scientific medicine and care relationship.PMID:34246457 | DOI:10.1016/j.bulcan.2021.02.011
Source: Bulletin du Cancer - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Source Type: research