Dr.S.Venkatesan MD

One of the important principles of medicine  is  “Diagnosis should  always precede treatment”

This quote , though appear reasonable , can not be practiced always especially in emergencies,  where we  have to first stabilise the patient   without a  prior diagnosis  .(Like administering IV fluids in hypotension , acetaminophen for fever , etc)

Modern medicine  considers treating a patient without a diagnosis as unscientific.

But,  it is a well recognised fact ,  millions  of decision in everyday medical practice is not based on scientific diagnosis  but on clinical acumen and empirical therapy . There are many  instances  wherein , we are never near the  diagnosis  even after exhaustive investigations. 

                       Ironically , in this era of evidence based medicine , when  we are  unable to  conclude ,  we are forced  to do the most  funniest  thing , namely converting patient’s symptom itself as disease entity and  be happy  in labelling them. Like , Motion sickness ,  poly-arthritis, , chronic fatigue syndrome, adult respiratory distress syndrome ,  pre mature ejaculation, fever of unknown origin  , attention deficit disorder , etc (The list is endless . . .)

               This happens because physicians always feel guilty if they are unable to label a patient with a disease entity.

Is the guilt  justified ?  Not necessarily so !  Symptomatic treatment without  diagnosis  is the most dominant theme even today (Fever, pain etc ).So don’t feel unduly negative* when one is not able to fit a patent’s  symptom into a disease entity  but ensure  he  gets relief from his symptom.

 *Except of course , one has to rule out a serious disorder.

 Comments welcome