A patient comes into the doctor's office with shortness of breath, fever and coughing. After a brief visit, the doctor correctly diagnoses bacterial pneumonia. To make the patient feel more comfortable, the doctor prescribes Tylenol for the fever and some cough medicine. The patient leaves the office, goes home and dies a short time after. Instead, the doctor chose to give the patient only symptom-modifying treatment for his cough and fever.
Improper treatment can be worse than useless.
The partially treated patient often does not know he is receiving inadequate treatment and is less likely to seek out proper care from another provider. As sad as this scenario seems, this is what's happening with many of the 43 million people who suffer from arthritis. This is completely unacceptable and must change. Besides the unnecessary suffering, over 16,000 patients a year are dying from arthritis drugs that are only symptom-modifying. Joint pain is so common as we age that most people consider this to be a normal part of getting old.