Human effect is important

The dismissal of non-specific effects of care as placebo effects (which are rated as sham, pretend, dishonest or false) does a huge disservice to patients and to doctors. The take home message in the article by Spiegel and Harrington is spot on: “We treat patients in a social and psychophysiological context that can either improve or, alas, worsen outcome. The meanings and expectations created by the interactions of doctors and patients matter physically, not just subjectively.”¹

It’s time for doctors to reclaim the human aspects of their work. Caring for patients with due time and attention is not a luxury nor superfluous. It has a direct impact on outcomes. We cannot reduce medical practice to the physical components of our interventions because human beings are more than their physical components. We are thinking, feeling, meaning-seeking creatures. Unless we are treated as such we cannot expect the best outcomes from our medical experiences.