When Standard Practice Doesn’t Match Scientific Evidence

When Standard Practice Doesn’t Match Scientific Evidence

One kind of “medical error” we did see on occasion was when the patient’s doctors are dutifully doing the treatment that’s “standard-of-care”, but the medical literature actually shows that the standard-of-care is wrong.

There are cases where large, well-conducted studies clearly show that treatment A and treatment B have the same efficacy but B has worse side effects, and yet, “first-line treatment” is B for some reason.

There are cases where there’s a lot of evidence that “standard” cut-offs are in the wrong place. “Subclinical hypothyroidism” still benefits from supplemental thyroid hormone; higher-than-standard doses of allopurinol control gout better; “standard” light therapy for seasonal affective disorder doesn’t work as well as ultra-bright lights; etc.  More Dakka.

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/TKk7rShf9d5ePN7vR/personalized-medicine-for-real

Interesting post and unfortunately all too common and too true.