Physicians hold back information
With physicians and patients on different sides of the fence, the issue of informed consent is a constant cause of controversy and patient dissatisfaction. Ninety-six percent of patients reported they wanted to know everything, with 85% specifying "the most dismal facts" including imminent death in a survey for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research. Other studies have shown that patients told all the possibilities negative and positive ahead of time are better prepared and make much better postoperative adjustments to stress and pain. Yet many physicians contend patients don’t really want to know everything, that medicine is too complicated for unschooled nonphysicians, and that it takes too long to explain. Less than half the states in the country have informed consent laws on the books.
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