Healing or harming?

The malady of overdiagnosis is creating more diseases and trauma than actual ailments themselves 

- Punya Srivastava

“For a man with a hammer in the hand and wanting to use it, everything here looks like a nail needing hammering.”

-Mark Twain

I felt the same about the neuro-specialist at a reputed private hospital who I had consulted a few months back for a constant headache that lasted over five days. I went to the specialist after acu-pressure failed to give me relief. I was made to undergo a CT scan quicker than I could say ‘headache’. Then, with the scan report in his hands and not more than five minutes spent on my supposed diagnosis, he labelled my headache as the side-effect of stress and onset of hypertension. I was prescribed three medicines twice a day for a week. Just after two doses, my blood pressure plummeted and I was plagued by constant dizziness and drowsiness. After a quick check on the net, I got to know that I was prescribed quite strong doses of blood pressure regulatory medicine, sedatives and anti-depressants! Terrified, I immediately threw them in the bin. The headaches got over with proper rest within the next two days. I was to later learn that the headache indicated the onset of cervical spondylosis, thanks to heredity and my sedentary job, and not hypertension, as the specialist would have me believe.

More than anger, I felt appalled at the callousness with which the so-called specialist had handled my case. I was made to shell out around Ì€ 1500 for a useless CT scan (at half the price, thanks to my mother’s CGHS card, or else I would have been ripped off some more) and equally useless medicines which did more harm than good. Not to mention the energy and resources wasted in this unnecessary exercise.