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Article: Beware misinterpreting symptoms.
- Article from:
- USA TODAY
- Article date:
- February 1, 1994
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Society for the Advancement of Education. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The old joke about the man who went to his doctor saying he knew he was sick because he had just read an article about a disease that had no symptoms isn't always funny to physicians. That's because they frequently see patients who have absorbed so much helpful "information" from family, friends, strangers, and the media that they no longer can sort out their original symptoms from those they have psychologically assumed, explains Leonard Morgan, a family medicine specialist at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.
"Physicians depend upon the patient to describe in detail, and in an appropriate time frame, the characteristics and evolution of their ...