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Think before you click: setting personal boundaries for the acquisition of medical information
Earlier this year I had the pleasure of joining members of the British Pain Society's Philosophy Group at their annual conference in the Lake District. My subject was the experience of suffering, approached from a philosophical as opposed to medical perspective. The setting was sublime and the company excellent, but sadly, for me, the event was marred by my own ill health. There, amidst some of the country's experts in pain management, I succumbed to what was later diagnosed as trigeminal neuralgia. However, I was unaware of the existence of such a complaint, and therefore described my extreme and obvious discomfort as toothache, and responded obediently to the forthcoming drug advice – none of which worked. In the intervening months I have reflected upon this experience and wondered at how I continued to misdiagnose myself not once but twice, despite two dentists having told me in the preceding months that there was nothing wrong with my teeth. I don't condemn myself too severely, favouring, as I do, my personal tendency to play down symptoms against the background of a familial tendency to catastrophise.
History
Publication status
- Published
Journal
Clinical EthicsISSN
1477-7509Publisher
Royal Society of Medicine PressExternal DOI
Issue
4Volume
5Page range
171-171Department affiliated with
- Clinical and Experimental Medicine Publications
Full text available
- No
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2012-11-08Usage metrics
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