What's with doctors just (for the most part) treating symptoms instead of finding the root causes of the issue?

It really depends on if it’s a short term issue or a long term issue (from my experience). With your headache example, if it’s the first time having the problem (and it’s just a headache with no other symptoms going on), it may not necessarily be a sign that there is something else going on that is more serious/long term. So, they treat the headache and tell you to come back if things don’t improve or get worse. Then when you continue to have the headaches, they’ll look into it more. It’s far more likely that it’s just a short term thing than a long term/serious issue.

To diagnose the cause of a simple headache could involve dozens of tests, exposing the patient to large amounts of radiation from CT scans, dangerous surgery drilling holes into the head for a brain biopsy (which could prove fatal), and hours of incredibly detailed interviews. Diagnosing other everyday complaints can also be just as time consuming and unpleasent.

Medicine involves a lot cost benefit analysis. Yes it’s interesting from academic point of view to know the cause of your headache but do you really want to risk brain damage and death to get to the answer.

Did they ask you any questions? How long you’ve had the headaches? Usually they start small and then work their way up. If it isn’t common for you to have headaches, be sure they made note of it, and keep track, yourself. If you notice they are becoming more regular, go back. However, have a list of symptoms, occurrences and what you are eating (there could be triggers) and what kind of headache you are experiencing. (Does it go away with an OTC or are you having break through headache?) Another thing, keep track of how often you have to take those OTCs.

If it’s in the ER, finding the root cause isn’t their job – their job is to get you better enough that you can go home and go to your family doctor or other specialist with a scheduled appointment about the issue.

My impression is that HMOs pay so little per patient that HMO doctors need to get as many patients as possible in and out every day, to make enough money to make it worth it to practice.

@RocketGuy Close. It’s actually that HMOs will reimburse for the cost of pain pills (which are cheap) but getting them to reimburse the cost of an x-ray, a blood test, really any diagnostic test requires proving that it was absolutely necessary, which you can’t do most of the time (because they have a rather strict definition of “necessary”.) So when doctors do a lot of these tests, they know that they might be loosing money on it – if the insurance doesn’t pay for it, then the patient has to, and many can’t afford to pay for it. My dad spent several years trying to change the system in all his “free” time.

@cak I appreciate the advice, but that was just a random scenario.
@Lightlyseared They don’t have to run all of those tests right away. They can do other things such as what I mentioned in the OQ, but they instead just give you pills. That’s not the right thing to do, and neither is doing a cost/benefit analysis when it comes to human beings.
This makes me think the issue is mainly a money thing. Very sad.

Part of it is just saving time. A doctor doesn’t feel s/he can spend all day trying to figure out everything for every patient.

The other part is that western medicine, and western science in general, is highly reductionistic in its approaches to observation. Sometimes that’s useful, but more often I feel it’s a wall between them and greater overall understanding.

If it’s a persistent problem, they will likely treat the cause. If it’s something that could be easily treated with a relatively inexpensive and relatively weak drug, why not?

It’s also likely for a physician to ask about dietary habits and make suggestions in order to prevent the problems as well. If the problem is simple and there is a possible simple solution, it’s better to go that route.

@Facade Well, money does make the world go round, and doctors need to feed their families and put roofs over their head same as everyone else.

With all the information available about symptons and dieases I would think a person should know whats going on with their body before they go to the doctor. It’s like we need to read and research before we go to the doctor so we will know what to ask or tell the doctor. That would be like giving the doctor a heads up on what to look for…yep! almost like doing most of the work the doctor is being paid for. This is just my opinion.

I was a little too specific. What I meant by all of my answer was simply, a doctor truly might not know the root cause to a problem for some time.

When I was diagnosed with leukemia, I went in with a cold that wouldn’t go away. I was worn down and also tested positive for the flu. Great, gave me meds that I needed told me to rest for a week and I would start feeling better. Thing was it went up and down. After some time, it was clear I wasn’t getting better. I didn’t have a lingering infection to account for the blood count (at that point they did more diagnostics) and I wound up at a specialist.

It goes in stages. Most doctors have to be in and out within 15 minutes. Especially if they practice in a large group or participate in a large HMO. If they didn’t, their practice wouldn’t be fiscally viable.

@cak Yea, that makes sense. It just sucks.

No kidding.

I have asked myself this as well and I ended up turning to Homeopathic and Naturopathic doctors. Unfortunately they are not usually covered by insurance. If you are lucky and the doctor visit is covered then treatment most likely is not because insurance does not think it works so they won’t pay for it!

But I, like Facade it seems, feel like it’s the doctor’s job to get to the the root cause of the pain. It is NOT, as AmWiser suggests, the job of the patient to self diagnose and basically treat themselves. And getting to the root cause does not mean throwing drugs at you. The drugs actually usually compound the problem with unwanted side effects. Sadly, the way the medical insurance and pharmaceutical industries are structured they make money by keeping people sick, not helping them get healthy. If they really want to get everyone healthy they know how: a good nights sleep every night, eat better (more fruits and veggies less processed foods) and exercise more. But they would all go broke if everyone was healthy!

It’s very sad. But all the more reason to take your health into your own hands. Eat and sleep better and take care of yourself and hopefully you’ll have no reason to deal with the dysfunctional medical system.