Word: aarons
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...have asthma worldwide, with another 100 million patients anticipated by 2025. Unnecessarily treating people may have no impact at best, but it costs patients money and, worse, may expose them to harmful side effects for years or even decades. "The commonest medicines that we use are inhaled steroids," says Aaron. "They are very safe for patients with asthma, but are associated with long-term side effects, including osteoporosis, glaucoma and cataracts." The drugs may also exacerbate the patients' actual disorder - anxiety, for example - for which patients may continue to fail to seek treatment...
...Still, Aaron is quick to point out that even if patients suspect they have been misdiagnosed, they should stick with their medication until they consult their doctor. "I don't want patients to stop taking their medicine cold turkey," he said, emphasizing that the patients who ultimately went off their asthma drugs in his study did so over a period of several months while undergoing continuous tests to confirm the exclusion of asthma...
...solution to overdiagnosis, says Aaron, is simple: consistent, objective testing to identify asthma more accurately. A spirometry test, for example, measures the rate and volume of airflow during the patient's exhale, before and after using an inhaler. "If you came in with chest pain, [the physician] would do an electrocardiogram. If you came in complaining of high cholesterol they would do a blood test. But we're not measuring asthma before we start to throw medicines at it. We're making the diagnosis on spec, as it were...
...best advocates for patients diagnosed with asthma are the patients themselves, says Aaron. If you suspect that you may have been misdiagnosed, ask your doctor to run some pulmonary tests or pursue a different course of treatment. As Aaron says, "The danger of misdiagnosis is that it's a missed opportunity to figure out what's truly wrong with the patient...
...With reporting by Aaron J. Klein / Tel Aviv...