Middle Medicine

“Heart Patients should be Screened for Depression”. This is last week’s recommendation of the American Heart Association.

Does that mean a heart patient gets pushed through a screen-door? Cheesecloth? It sounds so technical. It just seems to me that a trained professional is very likely to simply see it, if they know the person and have the person’s confidence. But that can’t really happen at 5 to 7 minutes per appointment. I wouldn’t tell that person I felt down in the dumps either.

There are ideas that depression is difficult to see. I disagree. It is difficult to see for white-coated professionals who carry an air of superiority and give their patients a paltry sum of time. I has been my experience that those white-coated professionals who maintain their balanced concern for their charges do pick up on a patient’s state of mind – and the more time they spend, the more likely they are to pick it up soon.

It is also interesting to note that it is not already widely known, as a type of red-flag, that people with heart disease could be expected to have some trouble being light-hearted.

It seems to me that this is one more symptom of the distant medical doctor and alienated patient relationship.