Anyway, the point of this post is that "House, M.D." is a medical investigatory drama. At first it seems like a wonderful combination of CSI & E.R. with a well developed lead character, Dr. House (Hugh Laurie.)
Just when I am thinking about cancelling my recording of "Committed," which I should have done anyway, Dr. House chimes in with some advice for a protective mother of an asthmatic child.
"If you don't trust steroids you shouldn't trust doctors."
What a stupid remark! Stupid, Stupid, Stupid! In these days of Balco Labs, holistic medicine and the rise of the educated health consumer this sort of uneducated script is irresponsible.
I would rephrase, "If your doctor trusts steroids don't trust your doctor."
It's just Hollywood you say, well unfortunately people these days will believe anything they see on T.V.
8 comments:
I can see how you might find that short line of script a little offensive, but you have to understand that as members of the medical community, doctors must depend on the tools we have found applicable to fix disease. In this case, steroids for a patient with asthma.
While holistic medicine may be gaining strength in the mainstream, it has yet to be proven more effective than more conventional means of treatment, including pharmaceuticals.
The writers in this case may have gone a little far, but I think you have, as well, when you say that a doctor who relies on the proven effectiveness of pharmaceuticals cannot be trusted.
Aaron,
As a current medical student, I understand that you have to learn to spout the garbage fed to you by your professors. However, the dangers of prescription drugs are rarely acknowledged by the medical community. You are baraged by professors who insist on establishing an instinctual reflex in your head, disease 1:drug A, disease 2:drug B.
In the words of Jon Bon Jovi, "This is bad medicine."
I am not a doctor, but I grew up in a medical family. I am an excessively well educated medical consumer. I have a sister with severe asthma (who's most successful treatments have not involved steroids.)
I will accept that occaisional emergency situations are assited by corticosteroids. However this category of drugs has become the defacto treatment for everythig unknown. In the show, the doctor is just "guessing" that the patient might have a specific disease that might respond to prednisone.
I am not a "wacko" holistic, treat myself from things growing in my yard type. However, I avoid using drugs, OTCs and alcohol/caffeine (both OTC drugs commonly found in drinks.)
Aaron, I am pleading with you and every medical student and doctor, please look past the textbook. Once you graduate and get a license then you have an oppotunity to learn real medicine that will help people.
Dr. House got into medicine to treat a "disease" but medicine should be about the person. People are long-term investments. Corticosteroids are all about short-term thinking. The patient deserves long-term thinking from his doctor. Steroids should only very rarely be a part of that plan.
P.S. If you couldn't tell the abuse of prescription drugs is one of my pet peeves.
The doctor wasn't "guessing" on the tv show with regards to the child. The child had asthma. He had medicine for asthma, prescribed by a doctor that she wasn't letting him use because "she didn't think children should be using such strong medicine." Hugh Laurie's character replied that the doctors knew that was strong medicine and probably weighed that against the option of her son not breathing.
Melanie,
Thanks for your feedback. I wish you had seen the actual episode. Hugh Laurie's character actually says something to the effect of, "It's just a guess, but if I'm wrong what harm has been done."
The patient did not have asthma, I cannot remember the actual diagnosis on the show, but it was some bizarre disease rarely seen. Which is really the point of the show. They feature hard to diagnose patients.
For more information on steroids read the package insert available on Medline. The first sentence on proper use actually reads, "Inhaled corticosteroids will not relieve an asthma attack."
Once again, my point is that steroids are short term solutions that do not treat a disease. They may reduce symptoms for some period of time, but only in psychology can healing be defined by reduced symptoms. A disease is more than an inflamation, irritation, laceration or articulation.
Thanks again for helping to make my point.
Best regards,
Bryan
I HAVE seen the actual episode, in fact, I have it on video. The main issue was the kindergarten teacher with the tapeworm in her brain which was causing inflammation. The part that you are referring to is to do with the child in the clinic who has asthma. You've already acknowledged that Dr. House said that to the mother of an asthmatic child, so I don't know why you're backpedaling. What happens in the scene is that Dr. House asks the mother if her son is using his inhaler. She replies that he isn't using it much, she doesn't believe that children should be using such strong medication. Dr. House replies that her son's doctors probably thought that the medicine was strong, and weighed it against the option of her son not breathing. "Oxygen is so important during those pre-pubescent years, don't you think?" he asks the mother. Then he says "I'm just going to assume that no one's ever told you what asthma is, or if they did, you had other things on your mind." He goes on to explain that asthma causes inflammation and that the steroids control the inflammation. At this point you get the idea that he is thinking that maybe steroids will work on the kindergarten teacher.(turns out not to be the case) The mother asks him something and he cuts her off with a "Forget it! If you don't trust steroids you shouldn't trust Doctors!"
In the case of the woman with the tapeworm in her brain, steroids turned out not to be the solution, it was some other medicine. But I would hate to be the child of the mother who would withhold Asthma medicine because she doesn't believe that children should have such strong medicine and would prefer to let her child wheeze. Perhaps you should have watched the entire episode, then you would not be pulling statements out of context to support your cause.
Melanie,
Wow, two days in a row. Thanks for the continued discourse. I wish you had posted your comments a few weeks ago when I still had a clear memory of the episode. You have helped to refresh some of my memories of the episode.
Nonetheless, my points are still quite applicable. The mother is 100% in the right to insist that steroids are not used unless absolutely necessary. A little wheezing never killed anyone. Typically the body's response is useful. Steroids disrupt the bodies own response cycle. In some emergency situations the body might need some assitance in the process, but then the question is why isn't the bodies natural process failing? What deeper cause is affecting the immune system?
Melanie are you in a medical profession? I urge you to consider why the human body responds as it does, then consider why anyone would want to disrupt that natural process.
Best regards,
Bryan
No, I'm not a doctor or in the medical profession, though I have read quite a bit and at one time considered becoming a doctor. This is the information I have concerning asthma, from a textbook from a previous course:
Asthma is common in children. If not
controlled properly, asthma makes it hard
for a child to lead a full and active life, and
severe asthma may be life-threatening.
So a child who has more than the mildest
symptoms should take a preventive treatment
every day. The usual choice of medicine is an
inhaled ‘steroid’
Inhaled steroids are the best way of preventing
asthma symptoms in children, and will reduce
the chance of your child having an asthma attack.
Steroid preventers are recommended for any
child who needs to use a reliever inhaler (see page
3) every day to ease their asthma symptoms. The
daily dose should be agreed with a doctor or nurse.
The small risk of side-effects can be kept down by
using the steroid inhaler every day at the lowest
dose needed to control symptoms, and by using it
properly. A spacer is strongly recommended.
Melanie,
That textbook sounds like interesting reading, but gosh, I hope you don't believe everything you read in textbooks.
Reading the inserts or PDR on a drug is usually more informative than one might think.
I think we're beating a dead horse. Steroids are on the shelf and if you want them. Then, Melanie, you are welcome to them. I hope some people might keep an open mind about the possibilities of healing without the use of damaging pharmaceuticals. Among the general public and the average population of doctors everyone is far too quick to look to drugs for solutions to physical, chemical and psychological problems.
I understand why medical students need to believe these things. To get through school the only real requirement is to regurgitate the professor's propaganda. So for med students, it is okay to believe the text book and the professor.
Once you graduate, then learn medicine. Only a true healer deserves to the term doctor. Too many medical professionals are working an assembly line as if the patiet were a Ford automobile.
I am not a doctor. I do not give medical advice. I am only suggesting that individual patients should be responsible for their own treatment. Individual patients should take the time to research the options. If you really want know how to be a good patient, I recommend reading Lance Armstrong's "It's not about the bike." He chose chemotherapy, but he knew everything one could know about the consequences.
Since, I feel bad for this dead horse we are beating, I am going to close comments. If you would like to e-mail me, feel free.
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