Published 25 June 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2561
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b2561

Editor's Choice

Less medicine is more

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

It would be fair to say that the BMJ tends towards less rather than more medicine. We’ve published a lot over the years on the risks of overtreatment and the problems of medicalisation. It’s not a bad default to have in times of economic hardship, although I hope we also do our bit to highlight evidence of undertreatment where it exists. In a recent letter David Oliver warned that, although ageing should not be routinely medicalised, there is a risk of "socialising" treatable problems in older people such as incontinence and falls (BMJ 2009;338:b1200).

With that proviso, I’m drawn to several articles this week that champion the view that less is more, and in particular that if you give patients complete and unbiased information about the likely effects of an intervention they may well say no to it. Iona Heath sets us off on this tack, writing about her . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    StumbleUpon    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

How to avoid unnecessary interventions

Fiona Godlee
BMJ 2009 339: b3304. [Extract] [Full Text]

Deciding on whether to screen

L Sam Lewis
BMJ 2009 339: b3041. [Extract] [Full Text]

Breast screening saves lives

Nicholas J Wald, Malcolm R Law, and Stephen W Duffy
BMJ 2009 339: b2922. [Extract] [Full Text]

Breast screening: the facts—or maybe not

Peter C Gøtzsche, Ole J Hartling, Margrethe Nielsen, John Brodersen, and Karsten Juhl Jørgensen
BMJ 2009 338: b86. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Lewis, L S. (2009). Deciding on whether to screen. BMJ 339: b3041-b3041 [Full text]  
• Wald, N. J, Law, M. R, Duffy, S. W (2009). Breast screening saves lives. BMJ 339: b2922-b2922 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

more or less

L Sam Lewis
bmj.com, 28 Jun 2009 [Full text]

Medicalisation

Rahul Shetty
bmj.com, 29 Jun 2009 [Full text]

Less means more: 100% QOF achievement may not be ideal

Jonathan D Sleath
bmj.com, 29 Jun 2009 [Full text]

Man's Inhumanity To Man

Dr. Herbert H. Nehrlich
bmj.com, 1 Jul 2009 [Full text]

Even less could be too much!

BM Hegde
bmj.com, 2 Jul 2009 [Full text]

Re: Even less could be too much!

Raymond G Holder
bmj.com, 5 Jul 2009 [Full text]

Reply to Raymond Holder

Richard Bartley
bmj.com, 6 Jul 2009 [Full text]

Reduction in breast cancer mortality from mammographic screening

Nicholas J Wald, et al.
bmj.com, 10 Jul 2009 [Full text]

Uncertainty and numbers

Hazel Thornton
bmj.com, 11 Jul 2009 [Full text]

Online poll

Find out more here>> and here>>