Doc Shame You? See Ya Later!
If you're anything like me, if a doctor says something that insults or embarrasses you, you may never go back, a new study has found. I can remember when I was lugging around 30 post-partum pounds and a new internist I was planning to start seeing told me I really needed to lose weight. I dropped the pounds (he was actually my incentive to join Weight Watchers) but I never went back. But not everyone gives up on a doctor who challenges them. Some people lie the next time they see the doctor ("Oh yes, I cut 'way back on my calories"), while others decide to draw the wagons around and take the advice. Shame and guilt as a direct result of interacting with a doctor are quite common, says Christine Harris, professor of psychology in the UC San Diego Division of Social Sciences, as are both positive and negative reactions at newswise.com. Gaining insight into patient reactions is important, the she and her co-authors write, because “more than one third of all...