Gershman L
Villanova University.
J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry. 1991 Jun;22(2):103-12. doi: 10.1016/0005-7916(91)90005-p.
The author criticizes physicians who cling to the conventional belief that successful diagnosis and treatment of physical symptoms can only be handled by medical interventions. He describes the behavioral treatment of three patients who had been treated for almost two years unsuccessfully by medical specialists and who improved significantly with behavioral interventions. A physician who lacks the psychological information that illuminates the environmental and personal contingencies that help to initiate, support, and maintain a patient's symptoms--information such as that obtained by a behavioral analysis--risks deriving a deceptive image of the illness, extends treatment time, prolongs suffering, augments the risk of iatrogenic complications, and increases treatment costs.
作者批评了那些坚持传统观念的医生，即身体症状的成功诊断和治疗只能通过医学干预来处理。他描述了对三名患者的行为治疗，这三名患者此前由医学专家治疗了近两年但均未成功，而通过行为干预后有了显著改善。一名医生如果缺乏能够阐明有助于引发、支持和维持患者症状的环境和个人意外情况的心理信息——比如通过行为分析获得的信息——就有可能得出对疾病的虚假认知，延长治疗时间，加剧痛苦，增加医源性并发症的风险，并提高治疗成本。
