We go to our doctors when we feel unwell or sick. Physicians have the answers to help work through our symptoms, run some tests and then make a recommendation to make us feel better again. But sometimes we leave unsatisfied.
There are a variety of mild symptoms that an individual may experience when seeing a physician. However, after the medical consultation, this person may be labeled ‘healthy’. For example, a young woman may begin to experience constant headaches. She appears healthy and has a normal blood pressure. Essentially, her physical examination is normal. The physician then orders a panel of blood tests and a CT scan of the brain, which also reveal normal results. The physician reassures her that she is in good health and prescribes a mild analgesic and suggests that she return in a few months. In the setting of ‘negative test results’, the physician feels that this woman’s problems are ‘all in her head’. There is nothing medical to deal with or treat here. She is after all, in good health according to the physician’s limited definition of the word health – absence of disease.
This scenario is not unusual, and in fact may be fairly common in the office of a primary care physician or internist. If the man with difficulty sleeping does not have sleep apnea, then sleeping pills are usually prescribed. The sales clerk who feels apathetic and with little energy to do her daily tasks, may be prescribed anti-anxiety or anti-depressive medications to help treat her symptoms.
It is surprising how many people are on some sort of medication or drug to help solve the manifestations of one’s symptoms. It is more disturbing that little is offered to help dig deeper into the symptoms that do not have a clear etiology or cause. It is often easier, simpler and far less time-consuming to prescribe a prescription drug, run some reassuring tests and to have a patient not take up valuable time in the office.
What help could be offered to individuals who present to their physicians with vague complaints yet who do not have any identifiable pathology or disease entities worth treating? Perhaps this is where a whole-person or holistic approach may be useful. The physician may know to inquire about the symptoms of depression, because that would equal referral to a psychiatrist and prescribing anti-depressants. However, sometimes a person and his or her symptoms do not neatly fit into a diagnostic category. Perhaps a more whole-body approach to improve the underlying health of the individual could be beneficial.
Because we don’t have an available solution, and because ‘digging deeper’ costs time, many patients are given prescription drugs to help alleviate the symptoms of perhaps something deeper.