STOP LYING TO YOUR DOCTOR!!!

Ahan! What h a p p e n!!! People can lie!

"Doctor, I quitted smoking a long time." [Yet he smells all over like tobacco itself].

"I took the medicines just as you directed doctor" [Even after missing last night's regimen].

"I am well now, I feel great" [Just to waive the next shot of injection].

When patients get sick, they expect their doctor to make them well. They demand the best care, the latest drugs and the most advanced treatments available. They seek nothing less than a total recovery. Sadly enough, it’s often the patients themselves who sabotage their own medical outcomes.

Let me hint you on an open secret. . .

Hippocrates, the father of medicine, is said to have warned his students in about 400 B.C. that patients often dissemble when they say they’ve taken their medicine. Telling you that this has being going on for ages.

A rule of thumb doctors learn in training: "if a patient says he has four drinks a week, consider it eight". The same for cigarettes and illicit drugs.

Doctors know patients lie, often in little ways but sometimes in big ways. But what patients may not know is how dangerous their deceits may be.

Patients lie about a lot of things: They lie about how much they smoke and whether they’re taking their medicine. They understate how much they drink and overstate how much they exercise.

From various studies, it has been known that there are various reasons patients lie to their doctors. These reasons include:

1. To minimize or exaggerate symptoms or avoid key clinical issues.

2. Malingering (i.e. the conscious simulation or feigning of symptoms for secondary gain).

3. Patients lie about symptoms to obtain disability or access to controlled medication or to avoid incarceration or other undesired legal consequences of their actions.

4. To maintain their self-esteem.

5. To avoid being judged.

6. Weird enough, some patients just want to "please" their doctors. And so on.

Younger patients (aged 25 to 34), are more likely to lie about drug use, sexual history, and smoking than patients who are 55 or older. While men are significantly more likely to lie about how much they drink than women.

WHY IS IT DANGEROUS TO LIE TO YOUR DOCTOR?

This is simple and straight. When you lie to your doctor, YOU PUT YOUR LIFE AT RISK.

Lies that go unrecognized can promote misinformation or lead to treatment that is inappropriate or harmful.

Making an accurate diagnosis relies on the provision of reliable information by patients and their family members.

Such lies and misinformation can damage compromise/complicate clinical care.

In a situation where the patient lies on having not taken other drugs, the doctor could prescribe drugs that might adverse reactions with the previously taken drugs. This could lead to damage of VERY vital organs in the body, such as the liver, kidneys, etc.

In another situation, a woman who smokes (but lies otherwise), and is then prescribed birth control pills is at greater risk for blood clots.

Other situations are even worse than these, exposing the patient to very detrimental conditions.

ADVICE:

To get effective treatment, as a patient, you are the best partner your doctor could ever get as regards your case. Magic is not taught in Medical schools, else doctors would have been able to read into their patients minds. Be as open as possible, and help yourself.

#STAYHEALTHY