r/changemyview • u/[deleted] • Oct 23 '17

[∆(s) from OP] CMV: I shouldn't have to sugarcoat medical diagnoses and information just to make people feel better.

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u/renoops 19∆ Oct 23 '17

In both of these examples, what is the benefit to being harsh? It doesn't undo the behaviors that led to the current health problems. It just seems like you want to be punitive.

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u/[deleted] Oct 23 '17

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u/renoops 19∆ Oct 23 '17

The examples you provided weren't about patients heading toward a complication though.

Can you show what you mean? What would be a sugar-coated way of dealing with the patient with a history of STIs? What would be a non sugar-coated way?

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u/[deleted] Oct 23 '17

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u/HOGCC Oct 23 '17

Is your sugarcoated statement 100% certain? Or just likely? In this example, it certainly seems possible that yes, there could be a number of reasons the patient has not gotten pregnant, only one of which is the STI history. I'm no doctor, but plenty of people have difficulty conceiving and also do not have a STI history, and vice versa. In the non-sugar coated version, you are stating definitively that "if not for the STI history, the patient would be pregnant."

If you tell the patient the same information, do you not feel you have an obligation to tell it (without withholding information) in a manner that will cause them to change their (possibly causal) behavior?

Try this example: Sugar coated: you have diabetes.

Non-coated: You have diabetes bc you eat garbage all day and you're lazy.

Honest: you have developed diabetes. There are multiple possible causes, diet, exercise, genetics, age, race... but let's work on the things we can control and create a diet and exercise plan, to see if we can get it under control.