Provoking nonepileptic seizures: the ethics of deceptive diagnostic testing.
The use of deception in medical care is highly suspect in this country. Yet there is one condition for which deception is often used as a diagnostic tool. Nonepileptic seizures, a psychiatric condition in which emotional or psychological conflicts manifest themselves unconsciously through bodily symptoms, are currently diagnosed by a procedure called "provocative saline infusion." The test is fundamentally deceptive, requiring the physician to intentionally and directly lie to the patient, causing the patient to believe that the administered solution caused his seizures. Without such deception, the test might be useless.
Burack
J H
JH
Division of General Internal Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, USA.
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A L
AL
Pearlman
R A
RA
D003291:Conversion Disorder / Q000150:complications*; D008192:Deception; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent; D008297:Male; D026706:Paternalism; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010919:Placebos; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012640:Seizures / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D012965:Sodium Chloride
D010919:Placebos; D012965:Sodium Chloride