Overtreatment is taking a harmful toll

“What people are not realising is that sometimes the test poses harm,” said Shannon Brownlee,acting director of the health policy program at the New America Foundation and the author of “Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer.”

Have you experienced too much medicine? As part of The New York Times’s online series The Agenda,I asked readers to share their stories. More than 1,000 responded,with examples big and small.

Some complained that when they switch doctors they are required to undergo duplicate blood work,scans or other tests that their previous doctor had only recently ordered. Others told of being caught in a unending maze of testing and specialists who seem to forget the patient’s original complaint. I heard from doctors and nurses,too — health professionals frustrated by a system that encourages these excesses.

Terrence Power of Breckenridge,Colorado,said that after his wife,Diane,learned she had Wegener’s disease,an uncommon autoimmune disorder,the couple found it difficult to refuse testing recommended by a trusted doctor. The doctor insisted on office visits every three weeks,even when she was feeling well. He frequently ordered blood tests and X-rays,and even when tests came back negative,more were ordered,and she was hospitalised as a precaution when she developed a cold. The couple was spending about Rs 1.6 lakh a year out of pocket for her care.

“He was convincing enough that we felt we needed to have it done,” said Diane Power,60,who recalls being sedated before an endoscopy procedure,one of the last tests she allowed her doctor to perform. “When they were getting ready to knock me out I was thinking,‘Why am I doing this?’ But we felt like the doctor knew what to do and we trusted him.”

Terrence spoke with his own primary care doctor,who advised him to find a new specialist to oversee Diane’s care.

Under the new doctor’s care,the regular testing stopped and Diane was finally able to achieve remission. Now she sees the doctor only four or five times a year.