Tuesday, April 10, 2007 | Science : Medicine | print version

Religious bias colors doctors' views: survey

by Julie Steenhuysen, Yahoo

Thanks to Shawn Gorden for the link.

Reposted from:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070409/us_nm/religion_doctors_dc

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Few topics are more likely to cause argument among doctors than the influence of religion on healing, but a survey suggests most physicians bring their ideas about religion into their practice, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

Physicians have been debating studies about the influence of religion and spirituality on patient health for more than a decade, but little consensus has emerged.

A new study may give clues about why, said Dr. Farr Curlin, a University of Chicago researcher whose findings appear in this week's Archives of Internal Medicine,

Curlin and colleagues surveyed U.S. doctors about their views on religion and spirituality and healing and found a strong association between physicians' views and their own religious beliefs.

"This is yet more evidence that doctors are not just objective, neutral scientists. Their religious or secular commitments influence the way they respond to patients and the way they interpret data," Curlin said in a telephone interview.

Curlin and colleagues mailed a survey in 2003 to a random sample of 2,000 practicing U.S. doctors aged 65 or younger from all specialties. Some 63 percent responded and the average age of respondents was 49.

They found that 85 percent of those surveyed believe religion or spirituality is generally positive, but only 6 percent say it often changes "hard" medical outcomes, reflecting some sort of miraculous healing.

About three quarters of those surveyed say spirituality helps patients cope and believe it gives them a positive state of mind. About 7 percent, however, said it often causes negative emotions such as guilt and anxiety and some 4 percent think patients use spirituality to avoid taking responsibility for their health.

Doctors who are most religious are more likely to see the positive influence of religion on their patients.

These physicians are much more likely to report that their patients bring up religion and issues of spirituality. They are much more likely to say religion has a strong influence on health and to interpret religion and spirituality in positive rather than negative ways.

"Physicians' notions about the relationships between religion and spirituality and patients' health are strongly associated with physicians' own religious characteristics," Curlin's team wrote.

Based on the findings, the researchers said doctors should be aware that their own views of religion could influence how they provide care and patients should take note of their doctors' biases.

"Their doctor's own religious beliefs will influence how the doctor responds to the patient's spiritual concerns," Curlin said.

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1. Comment #30974 by maton100 on April 10, 2007 at 1:34 pm

Antibiotic treatments must be a sign of Jesus working through the boodstream, you see.

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2. Comment #30977 by Phaderus on April 10, 2007 at 1:41 pm

When I went to get my vasectomy, my doctor had to perform it at another clinic that wasn't part of the catholic hospital he works at. I also remember going to a podiatrist (thats a foot doctor in the U.S.) when I was a teenager to get a planters wart removed. Afterward, the doctor told me to imagine Jesus taking away the warts to keep them from coming back. Those are the only two times I have had any significant medical procedures done in my life, and both times religion came up. That catholic hospital is the only emergency room within 50 miles, will they respect my Do Not Resucitate wishes, or will my family have to fight them? This, even more than terrorism, is how religion affects us all on a daily basis.

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3. Comment #30987 by maton100 on April 10, 2007 at 2:09 pm

Hippocrates was the first medical practicioner to realize that Patrick Swayze did not inhabit the bodies of mentally ill patients. I wish folks today would follow his lead...

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4. Comment #30989 by Yorker on April 10, 2007 at 2:11 pm

2. Comment #30977 by Phaderus

I thought you were going to say they'd hassled you about the vasectomy, didn't they try to talk you out of it?

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5. Comment #30997 by maton100 on April 10, 2007 at 2:28 pm

Harold Shipman was doing God's will. Of course.

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6. Comment #30998 by Nails on April 10, 2007 at 2:32 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0kJHQpvgB8

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7. Comment #31052 by libby02 on April 10, 2007 at 7:51 pm

I am a doctor and was an evolutionary biologist prior to entering medical school at quite a late age. I am sure my religious patients would also think that my comments about 'nature', rather than the typical 'it's in god's hands', are equally biased by my strong atheist beliefs. I obviously never flaunt my beliefs one way or another but nor would I lie if asked directly. I was asked recently by a devout Muslim if I believed in god and when I said no, she said nothing but left my practice because of this 'greatest sin'. I think as doctors we are all influenced by our beliefs, whether we are atheist or theist, the trick is not letting that influence our patient management. This is something that the theist is notoriously poor at in my opinion.

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8. Comment #31060 by MIND_REBEL on April 10, 2007 at 8:31 pm

Science has proved that praying is actually harmful to healing because it stresses the mind. I

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9. Comment #31084 by Veronique on April 10, 2007 at 11:22 pm

Yorker, I know I had the devil's own job trying to secure a tubal ligation just before I was 30. I'd had two sons and didn't want anymore. I know I have said somewhere on this site that while I was pregnant with my second son, I was reading Koestler's Ghost in the Machine. The end of his book has a lot to do with global overpopulation and its exponential rise. That was in 1970. The book itself was written in 1967. (Haven't come far have we?)

The desire video in the article list here was interesting in terms of sussing out potential mates because this was an argument used by the first 5 doctors in order to deny me. I was told by them that I was too young, what would happen if I met a bloke, fell in love and wanted more children, it was not reversible etc etc.

I told them that this was precisely why I wanted a TL to forestall that procreative urge within a relationship. The 6th doctor listened to my spiel and, by the time I visited him, I had put together quite a good, cogent, unanswerable argument. I think he thought I was nuts anyway (I was pretty overbearing by this stage and cross that I had to rely on the goodwill and commonsense of someone in a position to enable this procedure) but he couldn't argue the exponential growth rate in global population and finally gave in.

I should mention that the father of my second child was dead against the idea because, he said he might want more children. Well, he hadn't paid for his ticket to see the movie the first time round, why would he pay this time, I asked. He fell silent, looked after the two boys overnight and I went home the next day, safe and secure with my TL.

The difficulty in telling a doctor what you want as against what they think you should do is frustrating. Possibly more so if you are a woman. In the 70s there weren't many female medicos. All 6 I visited were males.

I suspect it would be just as hard for a young woman today. There are however, more female doctors: that helps.

Phaderus, how old were you at the time? And did your doctor even mention it to the catholic hospital?

There is a 60s something woman in Australia who has a tattoo on her chest that reads:

Please do not resuscitate. I am a member of VES NSW.

The Voluntary Euthanasia Society is growing in membership around Australia in an effort to make our legislators create a law. We did have passed by the Northern Territory and it was used once. Then our Federal Liberal Parliamentary Party rexcinded it because territories, in Australia don't have the same status as states (the Feds would not be able to overturn a state legislation).Several private members have introduced such a bill, never to be passed. Polls show that some 75% to 80% of those polled want a law that allows euthanasia.

Good luck with your closest hospital. Make a living will, lodge copies with your doctor, family, lawyer, anyone you can think of.

Cheers
V

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10. Comment #31105 by naeone on April 11, 2007 at 2:55 am

catholic hospital ?
reads like peaceful bomb or truthful politician

how does that work then, you present with AIDs and they treat you how??

you present with an unwanted pregnancy and i assume they force you give birth.

i take it catholic hospitals don't offer a sexual health service.

frankly i am dumbfounded with the concept

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11. Comment #31114 by Audley Strange on April 11, 2007 at 3:41 am

One of the many reasons I left working in the medical community was because I was told one day by a registrar that I "did not have a good Christian attitude".

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12. Comment #31119 by jeepyjay on April 11, 2007 at 4:10 am

Dr Farr Curlin! Can that really be his name?

http://www.rampantscotland.com/songs/blsongs_road.htm

This cries out for a parody!

Sorry, couldn't resist it.

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13. Comment #31120 by Apemanblues on April 11, 2007 at 4:16 am

I'm not sure whether this poll, based on who simply happened to reply, is an accurate reflection of the medical profession.

Most non-religious people that I know don't put themselves out to get involved in religious/spiritual polls, arguments or debates. They generally avoid that kind of guff altogether and just go about their lives.

This is anecdotal though, so I could well be wrong.

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14. Comment #31136 by Yorker on April 11, 2007 at 5:32 am

7. Comment #31052 by libby02

In my experience Libby, doctors do a good job of neutrality, I've yet to meet one who gave any sign of religiosity or the lack thereof. The closest to it was an American doctor who took care of me during a hospital stay there, he saw me reading one of Sagan's books and remarked he was a fan of Sagan himself. Not an admission of atheism of course, but I'd make a small wager on it.

If a doctor ever said to me "it's in God's hands", I think I'd reply, "Pity, I'd rather it was in yours!".

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15. Comment #31138 by Yorker on April 11, 2007 at 5:47 am

Veronique

The book arrived this morning, my normal practice is to blast through quickly getting the gist and looking for anything new, then I go back and digest the most interesting passages. So far, I like it and found only one technical error, not bad since I'm half through it.

I'll PM you when I'm done. I'll probably do an Amazon review, it doesn't have any yet.

Sorry, I just realised my bad manners to general readers, I'm referring to the book "Unintelligent Design: why God isn't as smart as she thinks she is" by Robyn Williams. Veronique suggested I might like to read it, I'm glad she did.

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16. Comment #31140 by Yorker on April 11, 2007 at 6:00 am

13. Comment #31119 by jeepyjay

"Dr Farr Curlin! Can that really be his name?"

Sorry, I don't get this, what is the relationship between this doctor's name and a range of distant Scottish mountains?

Naeone, you soond like a Scot, can ye mak heid or tail 'o yon?

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17. Comment #31142 by simplemind on April 11, 2007 at 6:07 am

?

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18. Comment #31149 by Phaderus on April 11, 2007 at 6:56 am

Regarding my vasectomy, I was 27 and my wife and I had decided to remain child-free before we got married. The first doctor I went to tried to talk me out of it, then when I insisted and told him that we were members of "No Kidding" a social group for child-free adults, he just refused to do it and said that it was hospital policy. I then got a referral from someone who had already gotten one and that doctor, who worked at the same hospital, said no problem, but we had to do it at a different clinic that wasn't associated with the hospital.

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19. Comment #31164 by naeone on April 11, 2007 at 8:21 am

you have rumbled me Yorker. I am indeed Scottish.
loverly country but with deep seated religious issues

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20. Comment #31254 by Chris Davis on April 11, 2007 at 6:07 pm

Interesting. I had my vasectomy in Scotland, with a similar backstory (didn't want kids etc.). In my case, though, all the medics were almost enthusiastic, and nary a question was asked.

It's possible that they took one look at me and decided that the last thing the world needed was more copies of my genes around...

My expensive medical insurance declined to pay, on the grounds that the procedure was elective. Strangely, they cover the costs of pregnancy. Presumably having sprogs is one of those 'acts of god', or something.

CD

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