http://goo.gl/Owznny
The study, which examined 5,050 patient-physician encounters, found that -- despite doctors' perceptions -- patients aren't demanding medicine they don't need.
Analyzing the records of more than 5,000 cancer patient visits in Philadelphia, a team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that patients requested additional treatment in 9 percent of conversations with doctors. Of those, only 1 percent of the requests were for "clinically inappropriate" treatment — the other 99 percent were for medicine that would be appropriate for the given prognosis.
"Most of the demands or requests are clinically appropriate and many seem reasonable," the researchers wrote. "Other patient demands are even desirable. For instance, requests for additional palliative interventions, such as pain medications or insomnia treatments, accounted for 1 in 6 of the demands or requests (15.5%) and provide insight into patients’ symptoms, which is obviously valuable."