# Self-Help groups help patients percieve improvement



## betterthroughscience (Jan 13, 2006)

A randomised controlled trial of self-help interventions in patients with a primary care diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome. (Gut 2006)http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.f...l=pubmed_docsumCONCLUSION: Introduction of a self-help guidebook results in a reduction in primary care consultations, a perceived reduction in symptoms, and significant health service savings. This suggests that patients attending their primary care physician with functional abdominal symptoms should be offered self-help information as part of their management.What an interesting conclusion. It will save the health insurance (in England that is the goverment) money if patients with IBS are givena self-help book, because it will reduce the number of times they seek care, and some will even thing they are doing better (even though they are objectively not). That seems very poor thinking. Rather than just try to stop them seeing a doctor, how about an intervention that actually reduces symptoms? Is it okay to convince someone that they are doing better when they are not? Some may say so. For me, this seems to be a very poor substitute for finding ways to actually make them better.


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