4 ms·

Big pet-peeves of doctors: 1. The Academic Elitist: When they act like know-it-alls, poo-poo informed patients or any information that didn't originate from th

Big pet-peeves of doctors: 1. The Academic Elitist: When they act like know-it-alls, poo-poo informed patients or any information that didn't originate from them. 2. The Thickheaded: When they don't LISTEN and go about diagnosing whatever it is they're more interested in. 3. The Evening News Anchor: When they act with over-confident, pseudo-infallibility, which seems to correlate invariably with being wrong. 4. The Snakeoil Salesman: When they hard-sell products and services that aren't even FDA-approved, like this certain brand of CBD that this one doctor was pushing. cough kickbacks cough Bonus: The Histrionic and Defensive: When they gaslight or accuse their patient of behavior they didn't engage in, especially when they miss lab results and clinical symptoms that would explain said symptoms.

HenryBemis 8y ago
"It's never lupus." :)
AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
Have to agree with most of this list. My thyroid stopped working when I was a kid and despite many doctor's visits it went undiagnosed for about 2 years. It was ultimately diagnosed by my mother's coworker, a ticket booth attendant, who recognized the symptoms as being similar to her dog's. After enough badgering by my mother a simple blood test confirmed her diagnosis. I can't say that my experience with doctors since then has improved my opinion of them. I've met with only about 2 physicians in my entire life that actually seemed genuinely interested in solving problems.
- zeroego 8y ago
  I've had similar experiences in my life as well. Purely anecdotal, but I've found NP's and PA's tend to listen more and just be more personable in general. I sometimes wonder if the extreme hours physicians have to work beat the compassion right out of them.
  - vvanders 8y ago
    This so much. Our NP was great, took time to understand the issue each time we visited and generally was on the mark much more often than other MDs I've seen over the years.
- LinuxBender 8y ago
  I had a similar experience. I had serious gut issues and Kaiser poked my belly, then said "It's a virus. It will clear up". Even after I told them this had been going on for a month. I had to research this myself and it took me almost a month to gain expertise on the gut.
bg4 8y ago
This list applies to all domains.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
tvanantwerp 8y ago
Even worse is that these items aren't mutually exclusive--you can get a doctor who exhibits them all!
onemoresoop 8y ago
(1) and (2) Absolutely right, and they might tell the patient they need to see a psychiatrist instead
stochastic_monk 8y ago
I worked extensively with a number of doctors, primarily pathologists, for about 3 years. Some of them are among the most humble, caring people I’ve ever met. Some of them had colossal egos and would ignore advice from PhDs on their area of expertise because they had the wrong letters after their name. On the whole, I felt enriched by the experience. Eventually you learn which to treat like children and which to treat like adults.
- swingline-747 8y ago
  Good that there are counterexamples. I have no such luxury as I'm on the fifth PCP doctor this year. I lost two within a week.
Gatsky 8y ago
Ironic that 1-3 and the bonus could equally apply to some patients.
- swingline-747 8y ago
  True. Not all doctors or patients exhibit these behavior patterns, but many do in my (anecdotal) experience because of the very basic healthcare I have access to. If I had zillion$, there are astronomically-better doctors whom likely treat their patients somewhat better... but it's my fault.
barry-cotter 8y ago
> 4. The Snakeoil Salesman: When they hard-sell products and services that aren't even FDA-approved, like this certain brand of CBD that this one doctor was pushing. cough kickbacks cough You may have been writing more for humour more than to inform but implying that off label use is anything but an utterly normal part of professional medical practice is dangerous. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-label_use https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-label_use Off-label use is very common. Generic drugs generally have no sponsor as their indications and use expands, and incentives are limited to initiate new clinical trials to generate additional data for approval agencies to expand indications of proprietary drugs.[1] Up to one-fifth of all drugs are prescribed off-label and amongst psychiatric drugs, off-label use rises to 31%.[3]
- crankylinuxuser 8y ago
  > ...Up to one-fifth of all drugs are prescribed off-label and amongst psychiatric drugs, off-label use rises to 31%.[3] So, in other words, psychiatric medicine is non-scientific voodoo? Cause that certainly doesn't sound scientific. At best, it's 10 minutes per patient anecdotal 'evidence'.
whatever_dude 8y ago
I've always found that doctors' behavior correlate well with that of programmers. Both tend to have a high view of themselves and are therefore less prone to introspection or admitting mistakes. I've definitely seen points 1, 2 and 3 coming from both doctors and developers.

HenryBemis 8y ago

"It's never lupus." :)

AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago

Have to agree with most of this list. My thyroid stopped working when I was a kid and despite many doctor's visits it went undiagnosed for about 2 years. It was ultimately diagnosed by my mother's coworker, a ticket booth attendant, who recognized the symptoms as being similar to her dog's. After enough badgering by my mother a simple blood test confirmed her diagnosis. I can't say that my experience with doctors since then has improved my opinion of them. I've met with only about 2 physicians in my entire life that actually seemed genuinely interested in solving problems.

zeroego 8y ago
I've had similar experiences in my life as well. Purely anecdotal, but I've found NP's and PA's tend to listen more and just be more personable in general. I sometimes wonder if the extreme hours physicians have to work beat the compassion right out of them.
- vvanders 8y ago
  This so much. Our NP was great, took time to understand the issue each time we visited and generally was on the mark much more often than other MDs I've seen over the years.
LinuxBender 8y ago
I had a similar experience. I had serious gut issues and Kaiser poked my belly, then said "It's a virus. It will clear up". Even after I told them this had been going on for a month. I had to research this myself and it took me almost a month to gain expertise on the gut.

bg4 8y ago

This list applies to all domains.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

tvanantwerp 8y ago

Even worse is that these items aren't mutually exclusive--you can get a doctor who exhibits them all!

onemoresoop 8y ago

(1) and (2) Absolutely right, and they might tell the patient they need to see a psychiatrist instead

stochastic_monk 8y ago

I worked extensively with a number of doctors, primarily pathologists, for about 3 years. Some of them are among the most humble, caring people I’ve ever met. Some of them had colossal egos and would ignore advice from PhDs on their area of expertise because they had the wrong letters after their name. On the whole, I felt enriched by the experience. Eventually you learn which to treat like children and which to treat like adults.

swingline-747 8y ago
Good that there are counterexamples. I have no such luxury as I'm on the fifth PCP doctor this year. I lost two within a week.

Gatsky 8y ago

Ironic that 1-3 and the bonus could equally apply to some patients.

swingline-747 8y ago
True. Not all doctors or patients exhibit these behavior patterns, but many do in my (anecdotal) experience because of the very basic healthcare I have access to. If I had zillion$, there are astronomically-better doctors whom likely treat their patients somewhat better... but it's my fault.

barry-cotter 8y ago

> 4. The Snakeoil Salesman: When they hard-sell products and services that aren't even FDA-approved, like this certain brand of CBD that this one doctor was pushing. cough kickbacks cough You may have been writing more for humour more than to inform but implying that off label use is anything but an utterly normal part of professional medical practice is dangerous. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-label_use https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-label_use Off-label use is very common. Generic drugs generally have no sponsor as their indications and use expands, and incentives are limited to initiate new clinical trials to generate additional data for approval agencies to expand indications of proprietary drugs.[1] Up to one-fifth of all drugs are prescribed off-label and amongst psychiatric drugs, off-label use rises to 31%.[3]

crankylinuxuser 8y ago
> ...Up to one-fifth of all drugs are prescribed off-label and amongst psychiatric drugs, off-label use rises to 31%.[3] So, in other words, psychiatric medicine is non-scientific voodoo? Cause that certainly doesn't sound scientific. At best, it's 10 minutes per patient anecdotal 'evidence'.

whatever_dude 8y ago

I've always found that doctors' behavior correlate well with that of programmers. Both tend to have a high view of themselves and are therefore less prone to introspection or admitting mistakes. I've definitely seen points 1, 2 and 3 coming from both doctors and developers.