Dr Margaret McCartney concludes her latest ‘No Holds Barred’ column with this comment:
“We should turn our attention to the causes and effects of our iatrogenic anxieties. Researchers should be given more funding if they achieve suitably sanguine media coverage that rightly reflects uncertainty and nuance. Before release, health promotion materials should be assessed for accuracy and potential anxiety by an independent body and citizen reviewers, some of whom have anxiety disorders themselves. So too should guidelines—which should say what reasonably should not be done, as well as what should.”
I fully share Dr McCartney’s eloquently summarised perspective. I too am concerned about harm caused by “too much medicine”. Whilst pathology seen under the microscope matters, we must keep sight of the wonderful world between the microscope and the telescope. This everyday light is where we spend our lives. I would suggest that we need to shift our stance from peering through the medical lens. Perhaps then we would be less anxious and our outlook more realistic:
