You are currently browsing the News In Healthcare weblog archives for January, 2007.
Archive for January, 2007
There is a very interesting essay published in yesterday’s New York Times about an Epidemic of Diagnoses. The essay, written by several physicians, explains that in the past, many people lived with minor physical or emotional sensations and chalked it up to being a part of life. Today, however, those sensations are being considered symptoms of disease and people are entering the health care system for treatment. Everyday experiences like insomnia and twitchy legs are now diagnoses: sleep disorder, depression, restless leg syndrome. With the epidemic of diagnoses comes an epidemic of treatments. Not all treatments have important benefits and some may have harms — which may take years to emerge.