Losing confidence in medicine in an era of medical expansion?

Disaggregating ethnoracial disparities in physician trust

“…Yet, uncertainty/ambivalence itself is a troubling indicator of disconnect between patient and physician -one that is more likely to occur along certain dimensions for Blacks than for Whites. This study, then, is in line with, but extends, a recent study of the GSS (Zheng, 2015) showing that racial differences in attitudes toward doctors are contingent upon the underlying issue scale items tap: Minorities are less likely to believe that doctors are ethical but, depending on the measures employed, more or equally likely to believe in the authority of doctors (Zheng, 2015).…”

“…Much of the existing literature only discusses why minorities are less trusting than Whites, primarily focusing on Black-White differences, and assumes consistency in distrust across dimensions of the patient-physician relationship. In doing so, the previous literature has created homogenous non-White ethnoracial groups (e.g., Zheng, 2015), whereas the results of this study show important forms of heterogeneity among minorities. These assumptions are, in part, an artifact of research design, as most studies include only 2 or 3 ethnoracial groups or attend to ethnic differences among racialized groups (e.g., the effect of language on Latino-White differences [Stepanikova et al, 2006]).…”

Medicinal Cannabis Users Downplaying and Shifting Stigma: Articulations of the ‘Natural’, of What Is/Is Not a ‘Drug’ and Oppositions with ‘Chemical’ Substances

“…Medicinal cannabis use must be located within the context of increasing levels of scepticism towards contemporary health division and its' institutions around many issues (see Clobert et al, 2015;Biss, 2014;Zheng, 2015 from thousands of papers) and an increasing affinity for 'natural' products in everyday life (see Moscato and Machin, 2018;Nissen, 2015;Rozin et al, 2004). As Porter (1997) noted, from the inter-war years until about 1970, patients, broadly speaking, regarded the medical profession as benign and the populace generally wanted more of the profession.…”

The ASBH code of ethics and the limits of professional healthcare ethics consultations

“…In turn, this closer relationship has included worries about how the business of medicine undermines trust in the profession of medicine. As Zheng notes, ‘Americans’ confidence in the institution of medicine has continuously declined over the past three decades’ 14. The criteria of trust or community sanction gleaned from the profession of medicine, in its historical form, may no longer apply to the occupations of medical practice in their current form.…”