
doi: 10.1093/jmp/jht043
pmid: 23990663
In this paper I argue that ethics and evidence are intricately intertwined within the clinical practice of differential diagnosis. Too often, when a disease is difficult to diagnose, a physician will dismiss it as being "not real" or "all in the patient's head." This is both an ethical and an evidential problem. In the paper my aim is two-fold. First, via the examination of two case studies (late-stage Lyme disease and Addison's disease), I try to elucidate why this kind of dismissal takes place. Then, I propose a potential solution to the problem. I argue that instead of dismissing a patient's illness as "not real," physicians ought to exercise a compassionate suspension of judgment when a diagnosis cannot be immediately made. I argue that suspending judgment has methodological, epistemic, and ethical virtues and therefore should always be preferred to patient dismissal in the clinical setting.
Lyme Disease, Physician-Patient Relations, Decision Making, Diagnosis, Differential, Judgment, Addison Disease, Diagnosis, Humans, Ethics, Medical, Philosophy, Medical
Lyme Disease, Physician-Patient Relations, Decision Making, Diagnosis, Differential, Judgment, Addison Disease, Diagnosis, Humans, Ethics, Medical, Philosophy, Medical
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