UVA study reveals bias in pain management/treatment of white vs black patients

[Lost in Translation]

http://news.virginia.edu/content/study-links-disparities-pain-management-racial-bias

Can I be the new Astra118?

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[efle]

Here's the study (abstract)

 

[Lucca]

Lots of research on similar subjects as well.

Book all about pain management and black patients, Black Pain
Review article on misdiagnosis of mental disorders among black patients
Study finding over-diagnosis of schizophrenia among black patients when compared to white patients with similar clinical presentations

and the literature goes on and on and on and on and on....

 

[WedgeDawg]

Moving to the Topics in Healthcare forum. Let's try to keep pre-allo threads relevant to the medical school application process. Thanks!

 

[Lost in Translation]

Glad the change was made @WedgeDawg. Can't be mad at that.

 

[ZedsDed]

That's pretty damning, and unfortunate. I don't think it's surprising to anyone that ignorance begets misery. Though I must say I find the blanket condemnation of all scientific inquiry on race and biology to be annoying and unfair.

 

[efle]

Is there a stereotype that different races have different pain senses...?

 

[ZedsDed]

Is there a stereotype that different races have different pain senses...?

To the extent that it exists it's probably not something people are really cognizant of. I wanna read the article a little more carefully later this week.

 

[dynx]

Cant open the study but looks interesting. Some bizare beliefs to be held by medical professionals for sure. I don wonder how the questions were phrased. Especially with the "how true is this" type of questioning that the article seems to suggest. I can certainly see somebody being asked:
"black's coagulate faster than whites"
a. somewhat true
b. not at all true
c. etc. etc.
and overthinking the question as medical students tend to do along the lines of:
well given the prevelence of sickle cell traits in blacks vs. the prevelence of genetic coagulopathy in whites I guess its somewhat true. For which they get slapped as a racist.

On a side note I disagee with the recommendation for kidney stones. Have had one personally and toradol was far, far better than the morphine in the ER. White or black i'd offer IV toradol as a first line.

 

[Mad Jack]

Cant open the study but looks interesting. Some bizare beliefs to be held by medical professionals for sure.
On a side note I disagee with the recommendation for kidney stones. Have had one personally and toradol was far, far better than the morphine in the ER. White or black i'd offer IV toradol as a first line.

It's less a bizarre belief and more that physicians have more trouble emphasizing with the pain of those that superficially do not look like themselves. It's a subconscious thing where your brain flags a person as an "other," not intentional bias. There's been interesting psychological research on that sort of subconscious bias in the past, it's actually quite interesting and likely goes back to our tribalist roots, when recognizing that someone looked like they were a part of your tribe or not quickly and efficiently was often a matter of life or death.

 

[dynx]

It's less a bizarre belief and more that physicians have more trouble emphasizing with the pain of those that superficially do not look like themselves. It's a subconscious thing where your brain flags a person as an "other," not intentional bias. There's been interesting psychological research on that sort of subconscious bias in the past, it's actually quite interesting and likely goes back to our tribalist roots, when recognizing that someone looked like they were a part of your tribe or not quickly and efficiently was often a matter of life or death.

I have no doubt thats true. I clarified my post after your reply. Just wondering to what degree the phenomenom you describe is at play or poorly worded questions that amplify the findings. This study was going to have a positive outcome. Period. If you are clever enough you can find anything you want. If its a small factor you can amp it up to a large factor to make it even more spectacular.

also, in the world of order sets I wonder how relevant this finding is to acute problems like a broken leg or kidney stones. Sure for chonic pain management it becomes an issue but I can tell you at least for my specialty you all get the same exact thing. Why? cause thats what my order set has on it. I cant imagine ER docs are sitting there thinking
"hmmm...given his ethnicity I'm gonna give him 3mg of morphine". I think reality is:
order set -> abdominal pain, click. done.
Nurse "what did you give him for pain"
doctor "I dont know, whatever is on the order set"

 

[naijacardriodoc]

so dumb that ppl believe this...its really bizarre and scary....let's hope that adcoms do better with admitting students who will become physicians. the fact that ppl get through their interviews and believe this is so disconcerting.