I think it's more complicated than that. Sometimes the patient is forced to become the expert on his/her condition. Doctors don't always have the expertise, a

I think it's more complicated than that. Sometimes the patient is forced to become the expert on his/her condition. Doctors don't always have the expertise, and the system doesn't encourage them to spend the time required to understand truly difficult cases. Yes, I'm sure patients sometimes get weird ideas in their heads, but doctors are far from perfect as well. I think patients should definitely study the literature and bounce what they find off their doctor. Ideally the doctor is both open to new ideas and capable of ruling out the obviously silly ones. Of course I have to qualify that by adding that occasionally, the obviously silly idea turns out to be right.