Top lies we tell our Doctors
'a little lie cant hurt' can it?
a half truth is still a lie.. an unstable lie.
The reason patients lie to doctors include feeling
of guilt, Doctors' attitude, stigmatisation and
ignorance. I remember asking a patient ' what is
your bloodgroup?' she answered 'B' then i probed
B positive or negative, she said ' God forbid am
negative' she tot i was talking HIV.. Ignorance..
The top lies include
1 Age usually ladies, guys rarely do. little do they
know that age is one of important tools in ruling
out or in differential diagnosis
2 duration of illness. some pple think if they say.
it has been long the Doctor will be more serious..
they tend to also over exaggerate the severity
3 Social life
(a) smoking... denial
(b) alcohol...
(c) number of sexual partners
because they feel Doctors will condemn them
4 drug abuse .. as long as you take herbs...
koboko, sepe , shakope, karaole, and or you buy
drugs not prescribed, you abuse drugs
5 Drug complaince.. feeling of guilt will make
patients say they dont skip drugs.. please if you
are hypertensive or Diabetic, dont skip your drugs
6 Family history... often found out that patient
wether deliberately or not deny family history of
illness.. if you have relations with illnesses like
cancer breast or colon, hypertension, diabetes,
asthma you dont need to wait till a Doctor ask
before seeking help.