Flutterby™! : When evidence says "no"

Dr Jen Gunter: When evidence says "no", but doctors, patients and the system say "yes":

I have spoken with patients who have had a clearly unindicated surgery who are no better and yet many are perfectly satisfied with the unhelpful surgery. In fact they are happy because they equate the surgery with their doctor taking their complaints seriously and trying something. The bigger the intervention the less unhappy people seem about it not working.

This is a problem I've had with my last several doctor's visits: I paid some amount of money for something the pharmacy concocted up, but it was likely just bad tasting placebo. And so I'm more likely to resist the next time Charlene says "you should get that checked out".

What I want is a doctor to whom I can say "no bullshit, no placebos, if it isn't either known to work or I'm part of a trial, I want no treatment."

Think I'm gonna have to say exactly that next time.