Is It OK for Patients to Lie?
This thread is based on a comment by Kelly referring to an article on another blog regarding a patient not telling a surgeon the truth. Kelly wrote:
"We recently wrote an article on ethics at Brain Blogger. What if a patient did not tell a doctor all the information they could about their condition/s? Would that be ethically wrong, or should the patients have the right to keep that information to themselves?
We would like to read your comments on our article. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Kelly"
On my blog we covered the issue of lying by the doctor on the thread "Is It OK for Doctors to Lie?" I don't recall having a thread regarding lying in the other direction in the doctor-patient relationship. So here it is. Let's discuss whether lying by patients should be tolerated and if so what kind of lies. Have any of my visitors lied to their doctors? Without naming names, could you describe the lie and whether you had any thoughts about it later and did it affect the doctor's diagnosis or treatment? If you were a doctor and the patient lied, what would you think? Should a doctor rid themselves of lying patients or should the doctor try to investigate further the reasons for the lying? There is much to talk about. Read the article noted by Kelly and then come back and talk. ..Maurice.
posted by Maurice Bernstein, M.D. @ 7:33:00 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
As a patient, I feel free to lie if I believe that telling the truth will adversely effect the care I receive. Oddly, I started doing this after having an unususal medical error cause complications in a previous surgery. Fast forward a few years, and after a move I needed new doctors. When meeting with potential new PCPs, I could tell that they did not believe my past history. So I decided to lie and not mention the past incident, so that I would not appear to be a liar. Strange, no?
AG
"Tolerated"? I think it's about managing what you take responsibility for, and what responsibility you hand over. As soon as you tell a doctor, for instance, that you smoke pot, they claim they're ethically obligated to get you to stop. You have to weigh giving background info against doctors' CYA attitudes.
Some information gives doctors tunnel vision. Withholding it can be the best way to get objective treatment.
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