No abstract

No abstract

Family physicians may lack discriminatory ability to differentiate normal aging from disease states. To assess such ability, 53 aging-related indicators or symptoms were presented to 65 physicians in three family practice residency programs. Respondents classified each symptom as normal aging or disease. On average, residents classified 73.4% of symptoms correctly. They were more likely to classify disease states correctly (80.0%) than to classify signs of normal aging correctly (66.8%). Misattribution of normal aging signs as disease may prompt physicians to overmedicate and overtreat patients, resulting in adverse clinical outcomes.

Pupillary and verbal responses of 39 adult subjects were not significantly associated though mean pupillary responses while viewing slides of a seascape, an automobile accident, and a control slide were significantly different. There was a positive relation between stated dislike of the accident scene and pupillary constriction. Pupillary responses and Bell Alcohol Scale scores correlated--.42.

No abstract