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View Poll Results: Do doctors experiment on people without their knowledge?
Yes, especially on the elderly
1
6.25%
Yes, especially on patients with diseases that have no known cure
4
25.00%
Yes, especially on patients with no family or insurance
You'll have to define 'experiment' - do I think doctors try approaches they've heard or read about on patients without saying, "I've never used this medication/treatment for this exact problem, but in theory it should be effective, nothing else has seemed to work very well, we use the drug/treatment often with other problems, and it shouldn't be harmful." - In that case, I KNOW they do it - I've been a party to it, and I've had MDs tell me about similar situations.
If you mean do they take a complete flyer and do something when they have no clue what to expect, or they deny an effective treatment and substitute an untried treatment just to see what will happen - I think that's extremely unlikely, although probably happens occasionally.
If you mean they have a research protocol going and add people's confidential info to the data pool without telling them - it occurs, but the professional fallout if you're caught is so bad I think it's fairly uncommon. Much more likely that they throw someone OUT of an experimental procedure without telling them, just to clean up their data.
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I suppose all of you will have to define that for yourself. In my mind it means something like "trying unproven medication or procedures that the patient was not informed about".
I'll wait until we get a better idea of the question re: "experiments" before I vote.
I think in some cases doctors "experiment" with treatment in that they're not exactly sure if it'll work, but they're sure if they don't do something there will be negative reprecussions. In these cases traditional medical theory has been tried and failed, probably. So, if that's what you mean by "experiment," then I'd vote 'yes."
If you mean taking unneccessary risks just to see if something outside of accepted/normal medical theory/practice works, then no, I don't think 99% of doctors experiment.
__________________ America cannot have an empire abroad and a Republic at home.
I suppose all of you will have to define that for yourself. In my mind it means something like "trying unproven medication or procedures that the patient was not informed about".
Whoops. You must have posted this just as I started typing mine.
I'll vote "no" mosty because of the bolded phrase.
__________________ America cannot have an empire abroad and a Republic at home.
I wish there was just a simple yes.... It is called practice for a reason... how many times have you had a problem and have the doctor say, "well we can try <blank>"... that is experimenting... they practice everyday... sure there are diagnosis' that are cut and dry and there is a procedure to follow but many times they are winging it...
I have chronic back pain from an old injury and all of the doctor's I have seen so far have no method or reason as to why they suggest what they do, and all admit that they have no real idea of what the outcome will be...
I wish there was just a simple yes.... It is called practice for a reason... how many times have you had a problem and have the doctor say, "well we can try <blank>"... that is experimenting...
Keep in mind the key phrase here is "without patient's knowledge" (or I suppose the family's knowledge if patient is not able to reason).
I may have a bit of a different take on doctors... Problem with a majority of MD's is that they treat symptoms, not causes.
Not only that but they will consistently use the same treatment repeatedly. If they have experienced success in treating particular symptoms, they will use the same pattern of treatment over and over, without applying much analysis into the specific case.
Additionally, physicians are heavily influenced by pharmacutical representatives regarding which drugs to prescribe.
So, do doctors experiment on people without the patient's knowledge? Generally, I think not. Mainly because it would involve a great deal more effort on their part to do so.
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-Samuel Langhorne Clemens
Last edited by CardLogic; September 30th, 2005 at 03:59 PM.
Keep in mind the key phrase here is "without patient's knowledge" (or I suppose the family's knowledge if patient is not able to reason).
without the patients knowledge could also include intentionally misinformed...
I have been told by my old doctor that there were no side effects for a particular drug.... now he gave me the drug and informed me of what he was giving me, but the side affects were horrendous and well documented, even warned by the pharmicist.... when asked he told me he wanted to see if it would work...
to me that IS experimenting... wanting to see if it would work... hmmm
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