I was going to say “doctor’s don’t have the option of not picking the diagnosis”, but that’s actually not true; they just don’t have the option of not picking a treatment. I’ve had plenty of patients who were “symptom X not yet diagnosed” and the treatment is basically supportive, “don’t let them die and try to notice if they get worse, while we figure this out.” I suspect that often it never gets figured out; the patient gets better and they go home. (Less so in the ICU, because it’s higher stakes and there’s more of an attitude of “do ALL the tests!”)
they just don’t have the option of not picking a treatment.
They do, they call the problem “psychosomatic” and send you to therapy or give you some echinacea “to support your immune system” or prescribe “something homeopathic” or whatever… And in very rare cases especially honest doctors may even admit that they do not have any idea what to do.
I was going to say “doctor’s don’t have the option of not picking the diagnosis”, but that’s actually not true; they just don’t have the option of not picking a treatment. I’ve had plenty of patients who were “symptom X not yet diagnosed” and the treatment is basically supportive, “don’t let them die and try to notice if they get worse, while we figure this out.” I suspect that often it never gets figured out; the patient gets better and they go home. (Less so in the ICU, because it’s higher stakes and there’s more of an attitude of “do ALL the tests!”)
They do, they call the problem “psychosomatic” and send you to therapy or give you some echinacea “to support your immune system” or prescribe “something homeopathic” or whatever… And in very rare cases especially honest doctors may even admit that they do not have any idea what to do.