Physicians through the ages have practiced their trade with more or less regard to the effects of their treatment on their patients' sense of well-being, if not as much as on the disease itself.Until recently, however, little attempt has been made to measure the effect of disease upon quality of life and how this quality is or is not improved by the treatment. Several means have now evolved and in areas of medicine where the treatment may profoundly affect the patient's sense of well-being, effort is being made to gauge these consequences.