Communicating risk: But does it work, Doctor?

doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7428.1404-b

BMJ 2003;327:1404 (13 December), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7428.1404-b

Letter

Communicating risk

But does it work, Doctor?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—A theme issue of the BMJ urged practitioners tocommunicate risk, and share decision-making with their patients,but this is not always straightforward. Godolphin says thatthere are comparatively few medical problems for which goodrisk information is available.¹ I would add that, even whenthere is substantial research, the findings do not always answerthose questions most relevant to patients.^2
3

We examined research conducted into the available treatmentsfor menorrhagia, in the course of designing a decision aid tosupport treatment decisions in our current randomised controlledtrial (MENTIP: menorrhagia, treatment, information, and preferences).The studies included five Cochrane reviews, five other reviews,17 randomised controlled trials, and six cohort studies.

Even with all this available evidence it was still remarkablydifficult to answer the simple question from patients, "Doesit work, Doctor?" Although menorrhagia is defined objectivelyas menstrual blood loss of greater than 80 ml, . . . [Full text of this article]

Joanne Protheroe, general practitioner

National Primary Care Research and Development Centre, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL joanne.protheroe@man.ac.uk