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In reply to the discussion: Heroin deaths double after painkiller crackdown [View all]UglyGreed
(7,661 posts)but I thought you may like this article I came across.
http://www.hospitalimpact.org/index.php/2011/02/08/what_a_lack_of_empathy_does_to_our_healt
Thirty years ago, medical schools taught that the most important component of a mental health healing encounter is empathy, human connection, and authentic relationship between a physician and a patient. And beyond this connection, and much less important to positioning the patient for optimal healing, was the specific technical approach to the healing, (for example, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; pharmaceutical intervention; surgery).
Of course, I immediately went to see if this "New Age" teaching was consistent with the Hippocratic Oath and lo and behold I found this in the Oath: "I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug."
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They're aligned. Love it!
As I considered these questions I received the JAMA article, "Empathy in Medicine--A Neurobiological Perspective," from a friend of mine. Funny how the universe works.
According to this article, "lack of empathy dehumanizes patients and shifts physicians' focus from the whole person to target organs and test results." What's more, "evidence supports the physiological benefits of empathic relationships, including better immune function, shorter post-surgery hospital stays, fewer asthma attacks, stronger placebo response, and shorter duration of colds."