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Less care may be better care

May 26, 2010

All medical care comes with some risk for adverse effects, and in many situations, either the benefits are unknown or the harms have been shown to outweigh the benefits. A recent editorial in the Archives of Internal Medicine introduces a new series of articles called "Less is More" that highlights examples in which the overuse of medical care may result in patient harm and less care is more likely to result in better health. These include the use of anti-depressants, screening mammography, and monitoring renal stones with repeated CT scans. Possible reasons for the overuse of care are also described, including defensive medicine and technology creep.