RT Journal
A1 Vaisrub S
T1 PRobing for causes
JF Archives of Internal Medicine
JO Archives of Internal Medicine
YR 1979
FD April 1
VO 139
IS 4
SP 397
OP 397
DO 10.1001/archinte.1979.03630410007004
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archinte.1979.03630410007004
AB Among the many memorable solecisms attributed to the late Samuel Goldwyn is his comment on a derogatory critique by a movie reviewer. "The critique," quipped Goldwyn, "isn't even worth to be ignored." This zany quip comes to mind on reading that "The medical man is trained to recognize only acute symptoms, just as he is trained to treat such symptoms rather than their causes."1The above statement might have made some sense in the distant past when symptoms were often confused with diseases. Fever was a disease as well as a symptom, and so were the colic, yellow jaundice, and edema—the medium, to use a McLuhanism, was the message. Modern medicine clearly differentiates between symptoms and diseases. Treatment of symptoms, particularly of acute symptoms, is but a small part of the medical curriculum. The emphasis now is on recognition of causes of symptoms, on precise diagnosis of disease.This