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Mostly Harmless: Benign Conditions Systematically Overdiagnosed in Anxious Lunar Residents: Retrospective Analysis
Dr. A. Okonkwo
· Lunar Medical Research Cooperative
Lunar Medical Education · Vol. 2, No. 1 · August 29, 2023
Abstract
Follow-up investigation building on prior work. In a medical environment characterized by heightened awareness and limited diagnostic capability, benign conditions are frequently over-investigated and over-treated. This perspective identifies the ten most overdiagnosed benign conditions in lunar residents, examines the psychological and systemic...
Extended analysis and updated findings. Every medical officer in a new and unfamiliar environment develops a diagnostic bias toward severity. When the environment is the Moon, where every symptom potentially carries additional meaning — could this headache be intracranial pressure? Is this fatigue cardiovascular deconditioning? — the bias toward over-investigation is understandable and frequently costly.
The phrase 'mostly harmless' has a long informal history in medicine as a colloquial shorthand for the benign end of the differential. The challenge is that in a closed habitat with a finite formulary and a medical officer who is also the patient's daily colleague, the mostly harmless diagnosis requires explicit, confident communication — and the courage to withhold investigation in the face of an anxious patient.
The ten most...
The phrase 'mostly harmless' has a long informal history in medicine as a colloquial shorthand for the benign end of the differential. The challenge is that in a closed habitat with a finite formulary and a medical officer who is also the patient's daily colleague, the mostly harmless diagnosis requires explicit, confident communication — and the courage to withhold investigation in the face of an anxious patient.
The ten most...
Keywords
overdiagnosis, benign conditions, cognitive bias, health literacy, anxiety, differential diagnosis