Human nature seems averse to evidence

doi:10.1136/bmj.a1029

Published 28 July 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a1029
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a1029

Letters

Therapeutic ignorance

Human nature seems averse to evidence

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

The last sentence of Sir Iain’s article emphasises therole of patients and the public in helping doctors to confronttherapeutic ignorance.¹ However, seeing the increasing popularityof complementary and alternative medicine everywhere, I believemodern medicine will fail to confront therapeutic uncertaintiesunless its practitioners offer their patients what they needmost as human beings in distress: time, empathy, and understanding.This is one area in which practitioners of complementary andalternative medicine seem to score clearly over those of modernmedicine.

As Brown has pointed out,² a successful medical man has to exhibitsupreme confidence and decisiveness at the patient’s bedside,whereas a doctor-scientist (trying to confront uncertainties)is likely to present a picture of diffidence and self doubt.Brown says that medicine and science require complementary thoughtprocesses; the processes that work for one are devastating forthe other. If this is so we need two kinds . . . [Full text of this article]

Arun S Nanivadekar, medical research consultant¹

¹ Mumbai 400050, India

arunn@vsnl.com