Getting a second opinion

Douglas Street, Contributor

There are some persons who visit several doctors either at the same time or over time. It's a practice some refer to as 'doctor shopping'. There are several reasons they do this, but is it safe?

The trust the public has for doctors has dropped significantly. The days of doctors being treated almost like demi-gods are largely gone. There was also a smaller ratio of doctor to patient in earlier days. In addition, with the rise of Internet access, the public has greater access to medical and pseudo-medical information. These factors have led to a rise in the dissatisfaction of persons with the opinion and treatment of their doctors. They sometimes seek advice from another doctor or several other doctors.

There are times when a person's primary doctor's schedule may be too restricted and he/she may need to have medical consultation outside of the time that the doctor is available.

When someone gets a very disturbing diagnosis such as cancer or HIV, they may want to get a second opinion to ensure that the information given to them was accurate. This is usually done in a sensible manner, however, some person may remain in denial even after the diagnosis has been confirmed by several health professionals. Conversely, someone may have convinced him/herself that they have a particular diagnosis and no matter how many times they have beeen shown to not have it, they remain unconvinced.

Some medical problems are difficult to manage and sometimes expectations about potential improvement of a particular medical situation are unrealistic. These scenarios can influence persons to seek medical advice from several different health professionals without a satisfactory outcome.

Persons who restrict their medical visits to a limited number of medical practitioners have been shown to have better health outcomes, e.g., less likelihood of hospital admission. This is not to say that one should not get a second opinion if they have a valid concern, but at times, persons are very hasty to get a second and third opinion before seeing what their current doctor can offer as an alternative. It is usually best to go back to the doctor who was initially seen if any situation should arise (such as an adverse reaction to treatment or inadequate response) that causes concern as he/she may be able to adequately address the concern.