Is it worth the risk?

Dr. Douglas Street, Contributor

Everything you do in life involves taking risks. Some of these risks are small, while others are large. To live comfortably, we have to constantly do risk-benefit analysis to decide on what actions to take and which to avoid. This is especially important for medical interventions.

Any intervention prescribed by a health-care giver is potentially harmful to the one receiving care. It is the responsibility of the health-care professional to ensure that the client is aware of the potential risks involved, particularly if it likely to materialise or serious. Not doing so may have serious implications for both parties.

For example, a doctor prescribed an allergy medication for a client that caused her to be drowsy, and had a motor vehicle collision. As a result, the doctor was successfully sued as there was no documentation that he informed the patient of this possibility. This is a true story.

There are some interventions that require special consent e.g., blood transfusion and surgery. There are special consent forms designed to facilitate the proper communication between doctor and client ensuring that the client is properly advised of the risks and benefits of the interventions being contemplated.

The burden is on the doctor to ensure that the patient is advised about the relevant intervention, and the options, and potential risks and benefits, and it is also for the client to make an informed choice.

Sometimes the client may have an excessive expectation of the risk of a particular intervention, based on inadequate information. This is especially so these days, where drug companies are marketing directly to the public and feel the need to convey all the risks involved.

The problem with this approach is they fail to also inform the public about how unlikely these risks are and the risks of no treatment. Another example is the general public's attitude towards the oral contraceptive pill. Many hear of the side effects but not the benefits, and often take the risk of getting pregnant, which carries much higher risks and responsibilities.

The opposite is also true. There are some interventions which might have significant risks that are unknown to the public, who use them potentially to their detriment.

Some over-the-counter medications like NSAIDs (e.g., Advil and Aleve) have significant risks and often causes harm to those who use them.

It's very important, when making medical choices, to get information from the appropriate sources to get the best results.