Cause and effect – a linear chain or a network of interactions?
AUTHORS : Scott-Morley E.
RELEVANT UNIVERSITIES : Aesculus Clinic, Poole, Dorset, UK
YEAR : 2005
Western pharmaceutical medicine is in many ways a palliative system. The patient comes to the doctor with complaints of symptoms and expects to receive
medication to soften or relieve them. In most cases, the cause of the problem is not investigated. Clinical examination goes one step further. So, a patient with a
complaint of pain in the sternum may, for example, be diagnosed with heart failure. But rarely questions arise: why did this happen to a particular patient, and
what is the chain of events.
