More Than One Medical Student At UVA Believes Black People Don't Feel Pain

[KamaAina]

Not. The. Onion.

http://gawker.com/more-than-one-medical-student-at-uva-believes-black-peo-1769000512

Being black in most places in the world is, by and large, a disadvantage. In America, for example, police are more likely to arrest you if you are black, jobs are less likely to call you back if your name sounds black, and just about all of your cultural capital is sure to find its way, more profitably, in the hands of a white person.

Now, alas, black people can add “white doctors really think we’re invincible” to the list of pains in the asses we have to deal with on a regular basis. According to a study conducted at the University of Virgina, more than 111 medical students belive non-truths about black people, like the idea that our blood coagulates faster than white people’s. From UVA’s press release:...

This is horrible but ultimately unsurprising. When Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown in Ferguson Missouri, he claimed that Brown charged through a barrage of bullets and plenty of white people bought it, citing Brown’s size and “power” as if those things somehow make bullets less painful. In fact, white people have a long history of classifying black people as other worldy and immune to “normal” humanity....

Still, you’d think a room full of doctors in 2016 would be able to offer an emphatic “NO” to a dumbass question like whether or not black people have less sensitive nerve endings. But then again, white people can be astonishing.

[daleanime]

1. ......

[Jackie Wilson Said]

2. Reminds me of

http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/89908333

[SusanCalvin]

24. Yeah, not much progress. nt

[hedgehog]

3. Makes one wonder why so many African-Americans distrust medical personnel

[glinda]

112. Makes me wonder how much brainwashing they received in

their eduction also along the way.

[mucifer]

126. I see this as a hospice nurse in a big city. Lots of mistrust from

Blacks and Hispanics. It often takes a long time to build trust. Lots of people feel the doctors withhold the cure to their or their loved one's disease.

It's so sad. But, there is logic to where they are coming from.

[brush]

131. Pls clarify — do you mean the stupid med students or AAs?

I hope you're referencing the students?

[glinda]

133. I should have clarified. Yes, Med students. Thanks.

[malaise]

4. Good effin' grief

I so wish this had shocked me.

Facts don't matter to racists.

[Scuba]

5. An AA woman I knew professionally swore her college roommate thought she would grow a tail at night.

[malaise]

6. It's fugging crazy

One of my sisters and her hubby received hate mail and horrible comments after a Youtube tribute about an award a few years ago.

[PragmaticLiberal]

12. I believe it.

My uncle told told me some crazy stories about his experiences as a black soldier in Europe (WW2).

Stories like white GIs telling the local girls that black guys had tails which would appear at night.

All of this in an attempt to keep them from "associating" with black soldiers.


Suffice it to say that didn't dissuade the locals.

[MADem]

138. Unnnh, that's not a tail, Clyde!!!! LOL!

What is it about using the whole "tail" thing to try and isolate groups of people?

The "lucky Irish" had wings too....kind of like the flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz:

https://books.google.com/books?id=IJRgAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA266&lpg=PA266&dq=irish+people+have+tails&source=bl&ots=hLd9q7Jsp5&sig=zG91qzGxjR3audSwZavFyJ5Ujj0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwig_9e7gofMAhXSQD4KHek5C_8Q6AEIJDAB#v=onepage&q=irish%20people%20have%20tails&f=false

[KartBlanche]

41. What the hell??

Someone needs to grow a brain!

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. 1996, in my lil Southern town

my dentist, who I liked because he showed a lot of sensitivity to my dental phobia, had just finished pulling a tooth of a 12 year old A/A boy,
who left the office crying.
It was my turn, and as I sat in the chair, the dentist said to me..." His family asked for pain meds, can you believe that?
I ain't going to waste my time with any N________ kid".
When he stepped out of the room to take a phone call, I got up and left.

I have been unpleasantly surprised for many years now down here how much racism there still is, and really concerned when people in positions of power continue to practice it.

[malaise]

10. Racism destroys all

in the end. That's not a human response

[SylviaD]

16. Wow...he must have someone higher up the food chain protecting him...

Where I live, if a dentist didn't give a child pain meds that their parents asked for, that would be grounds for a license review.

Didn't the parents of that poor little boy complain?

[dixiegrrrrl]

31. Dunno the outcome, I never saw him again.

He DID die, of liver cancer, a few years later.

[valerief]

96. Shame it took that long. nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

98. Want to expand on my answer to you, for context.

Small, rural, and VERY Southern town.

And, Southern culture is much like Japanese culture. Being polite is most highly revered, so you get a lot of talking in private about things,
and a hell of a grapevine. The parents would not have complained openly, sadly.

[brush]

132. You go, girl. That's how you fignt racism. Don't stand for it in your personal life.

[Hortensis]

48. It shocks me. My god.

It also reminds me that, back in the 1970s when our first child was born, many medical professionals were still arguing that infants didn't feel pain and practicing accordingly -- even though every parent learns otherwise as a matter of course. Dreadful.

[LeftyMom]

77. That one persisted into the 80s.

I had a birth defect surgically corrected without a drop of pain medication, either during or post-procedure. Not because of prematurity or poor lung development making pain control dangerous, just because it wasn't believed to be needed.

[Hortensis]

90. Not all doctors thought that, so what was

happening with those that did? I remember my baby crying and crying. I was so new at being all this and was getting frantic, couldn't find anything wrong, until I finally discovered one of my blonde hairs tightly wrapped around one of his tiny fingers.

Well, here we are today with this widespread, unconscionable malpractice.

[Warpy]

7. WTF is absolutely right

These fucking morons should be booted out of med school right this minute, they're not qualified to be out in public, much less practicing medicine.

[rockfordfile]

93. Absolutely

[Blue_Tires]

8. Ugh... From the Commonwealth's flagship university, no less...

[Roy Rolling]

11. C'mon, please consider the context

This is a clinical medical setting, not a social function. These students need training, but their responses are not necessarily racist. There are many differences physiologically and anatomically between what you call "black" (which is not a precise enough medical term for this discussion) and "white people"

Would you not agree? Or are you saying all human bodies are identical, and any differences are only the perceptions of racists and not grounded in medical science.

So this is not "horrible". It is just neophyte students unfamiliar with the characteristics of different human bodies.

And to say medical students believe "black people don't feel pain" is unnecessarily divisive, my friend.

There are plenty of racists, but not being accurate with the accusation waters down the times when racists are really acting like morons. Save your ammunition for those who really deserve it, not students.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. Seriously?

You're seriously saying it's not a problem that 50% of those medical students and residents hold a false belief in a physiological difference that doesn't exist?

Medical students aren't 12 year olds repeating what they heard behind the bike shed, you know.

[cstanleytech]

88. Sounded more like he was saying that they are essentially just not educated yet so freaking out now

over their ignorant beliefs is a bit premature rather save your freaking out for when they are supposed to be properly trained then feel to freak the hell out if they believe that kinda bullshit still.
Of course given that its almost 3:30 AM and I havent had any sleep in over 29 hours I could be wrong about that

[muriel_volestrangler]

97. These are med students and residents, so they've got their first degree

It really shouldn't take specialised education for someone who should be of above-average intelligence to stop believing race-based urban myths in their twenties.

[cstanleytech]

100. I would say though that the article clearly shows its needed. nt

[SylviaD]

17. Agreed

If these were practicing doctors it would be a different story. They are medical students and students are allowed to be ignorant.

[markpkessinger]

37. I didn't have to go to medical school to understand that people of all races feel pain n/t

[SylviaD]

39. They need education, that is clear. nt

[markpkessinger]

46. Sorry, but these are college graduates . . .

. . . attributing this to mere "lack of education" amounts to making excuses for racism.

[SylviaD]

47. Tar and feather them, then? Bar them from ever practicing medicine? Arrest them?

What is your preferred solution?

[Bradical79]

56. Seems like they shouldn't be fit for medical school

It means that perhaps the University is failing somewhere along the line if people are making it through a degree program and being accepted into medical school, yet still believing something fundamentally wrong.

[SylviaD]

68. University is a great place for getting educated...

..both academically and socially. Anyone espousing views like these students needs a lot of both. Under close supervision.

They do not need to be booted out.

[markpkessinger]

76. They've already been to university for at least 4 years . . .

. . . how much "education" does it take to recognize a pernicious stereotype?

[SylviaD]

81. Don't you think their professors bear some of the responsibility for that?

They did a poor job in educating their students if they didn't challenge those very stereotypes in the courses.

[markpkessinger]

83. Again, I never needed a college professor to tell me . . .

... that this kind of belief was based on a pernicious stereotype!

[hopemountain]

89. seriously? education?

they need hearts, brains, and a conscience to recognize simple facts of the human condition. they have no business being in medicine. period.

i question your intent with these debasing attitudinal comments.

[noiretextatique]

124. Sorry...if they need to taught that black people are human

They have no business in medical school.

[AlbertCat]

72. people of all races feel pain

But, y'see.... nobody claimed that any race didn't feel any pain.

Why do people go bonkers whenever race enters the conversation?

Of course it sounds like one of those ridiculous "blacks hopped up on crack" shit. It's ridiculous!

But reading just the info presented on this page makes it all sound ridiculous. Why was this even posted? To get a bunch of "boy whites are prejudice!" posts?

[SylviaD]

134. Thank you I was indeed feeling a rush of "mob mentality".

Stone them! Stone them! Crucify them! etc.

[TipTok]

84. That's not what it said.

The question was if one group had more sensitive nerve endings than another.

None of that translates to 'doesn't feel pain' except for the perpetually outraged.

[SylviaD]

135. Thank you for the common sense reply.

Obviously, it's not that common anymore!

[magical thyme]

57. the majority of actual doctors did prescribe the correct treatments across the board

The researchers found that half of the sample endorsed at least one of the false beliefs, and those who endorsed these beliefs were more likely to report lower pain ratings for the black vs. white patient, and were less accurate in their treatment recommendations for the black vs. white patient.

To determine treatment accuracy, the researchers provided 10 experienced physicians with the same medical cases. The majority of these physicians recommended a narcotic (e.g., opiate, oxycodone) for both cases, which also aligns with the pain treatment recommendations of the World Health Organization.

Importantly, white medical students and residents who did not endorse these false beliefs did not show the same bias.

- See more at: https://news.virginia.edu/content/study-links-disparities-pain-management-racial-bias#sthash.2MbLn33P.dpuf

[LeftyMom]

78. On paper. We know in the real world even black CHILDREN are less likely to be treated for pain.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/09/150914114526.htm

Black children were less likely to receive any pain medication for moderate pain and less likely to receive opioids for severe pain than white children in a study of racial disparities in the pain management of children with appendicitis in emergency departments, according to an article published online by JAMA Pediatrics.

[brush]

114. Not that ignorant.

Come on, these are grown adults with college degrees.

How do get to that point in life and still believe racist bullsh_t.

Taking a class in say, "Black People Feel Pain too" is going to fix them?

I don't know about that.

Living that long and still believing such crap makes me wonder, frankly, about their over all intelligence.

I sure wouldn't go to one of them for treament if I knew they had ever felt that way.

[LeftishBrit]

18. These aren't uneducated children; they are medical students

They would have presumably had to pass exams in biology and related subjects to get into medical school in the first place. You don't take people randomly off the street for medical studies.

If they think at this stage of their education that black people feel less pain than white people, then this is worrying, and is likely to lead to consequences that are highly racist in their effects. Unless their attitudes are corrected, they will end up as doctors who don't give the same amount of pain relief or anaesthesia to black patients; who may automatically dismiss their complaints of pain as drug seeking or hypochondria; etc.

[SylviaD]

40. Yes, they need corrective education, but a practicing Dr. with same views should be sanctioned. nt

[liberalhistorian]

23. Mother of God,

you cannot be serious. You honestly believe the claptrap you're saying?

[Humanist_Activist]

43. The context probably dates back to good old fashioned 19th century "scientific" racism...

that placed blacks "lower" on the "evolutionary ladder" than whites, and therefore are more animalistic and less human.

Note, I use a lot of scare quotes above because the concepts above aren't really scientific and are a complete misrepresentation of evolutionary theory, and Darwin spoke against using the theory in this way.

But the whole belief about blacks being more like animals is important, because despite some acceptance of evolutionary theory, many scientists still held out on a belief that humans, or I should say white people, were categorically different than all other "lower" life forms. There was, in this time period, a persistent belief that all animals couldn't suffer, and were merely automatons reacting to stimuli, black were put in this category as well.

[Nay]

51. This is exactly where the idea came from. In fact, if you ask these

students whether babies feel pain like adults, they are also likely to think that babies do not, because babies aren't "people" yet. It's astounding and dismaying, but this is not the first time I have heard this. I'm old, so it would be normal for me to have heard all sorts of racist shit and sexist shit as I was growing up, but medical students in 2016????


What. The. Fuck.

[Jim Beard]

120. Damn I hate to respond on these threads but

the part of people having no pain I think is misunderstood by some. Yes we all feel pain but as we all know a black & white baby or a toddler falls on their butts a large number of times. There is no difference between the babies. They both basically jump back up.

Now take a fifty year old black and a white that has fallen on their buts the same way. They will both respond the same way compared to the young ones.

Some people just want to make trouble.

[muntrv]

58. You would think these medical students would know better having taken all the science classes

as undergraduates.

[Kind of Blue]

60. The ammunition is correctly aimed

at students who's racist social programming determines the outcome of my treatment and that's the point of the study specific to this school, and what to do about it. It's called the racial empathy gap and is hardly anything new, under the umbrella of scientific racism maintaining unconsious racism that not only prolongs suffering but is deadly, as we well know.

The racial empathy gap helps explain disparities in everything from pain management to the criminal justice system. But the problem isn’t just that people disregard the pain of black people. It’s somehow even worse. The problem is that the pain isn’t even felt.

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/06/racial_empathy_gap_people_don_t_perceive_pain_in_other_races.html

Your Racist Brain: The Neuroscience of Conditioned Racism
Read more: http://www.strategicleadershipinstitute.net/news/your-racist-brain-the-neuroscience-of-conditioned-racism/

Please read up and stop determing what is "really" racist based on faulty and dangerous beliefs. You only futher suffering like so many of you do with no backing whatsoever.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

62. what a fucking idiotic shitty response to this article.

dumb racists don't belong on DU.

[giftedgirl77]

116. For realz.

[kcr]

125. No.

There are not many differences physiologically and anatomically. And medical students should damn well know better.

[WinkyDink]

129. They aren't alone in stupidity, it appears.

[shenmue]

13. Is there a cure for being a dumbass?

[HubertHeaver]

30. Unfortunately, no there is not.

[IronLionZion]

15. "white people can be astonishing"

[joeybee12]

19. Apparently they didn't see their basketball team lose to Syracuse...

[KamaAina]

22. Please do not say "see their basketball team lose to Syracuse"!

Of course, since it's you, that may actually help the Huskies' cause tonight!

[joeybee12]

27. OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Yeah, I'm a little worried about tonight...hoping I'm worrying over nothing.

[malthaussen]

20. OTOH, we redheads do feel less pain...

... 10%. supposedly. Anecdotally, I think this is true, at least I don't seem to react as much to pain as lesser beings.

-- Mal

[HubertHeaver]

32. That's because our surface nerve endings have been de-sensitized by over-exposure

to the sun.

[RobinA]

49. Interesting

I have read about some differences in redheads. My mother is one. Supposedly stinging insects like redheads better, and in her case it's true. Although I know some non-redheads who are insect magnets as well. I, on the other hand, a brunette, seem to repel insects, which is fine with me. I also seem to feel pain less than other people. I do have some redhead in me, so maybe I got the less pain but not the insect magnet.

[TipTok]

86. It's the lack of a soul...

One of the perks I suppose...

[BumRushDaShow]

21. It's true

All sorts of studies have been done to show that doctors are less likely to prescribe pain meds to AAs than to other groups.

For example this recent report (2015) - http://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/black-kids-get-less-pain-medication-white-kids-er-n427056

and this (2013) - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=201128359 (suggesting an "empathy" problem)

and this (2012) - http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/black-children-pain-meds-er/story?id=16231146 (which mentions studies from 2007 & 2002 and how some in the medical profession misinterpret how AAs "express" pain/discomfort, where the doctor assumes they are not in as much pain as someone from another group)

[liberalhistorian]

25. Sadly, as a white person,

this doesn't surprise me at all. And, as I live on an Indian reservation, I can say unequivocally that these same attitudes are prevalent regarding native American patients among white doctors, especially from the Indian Health Service.

[keithbvadu2]

26. There are some truly stupid people in this world

no matter how 'smart' they may be.

[Ken Burch]

28. What the actual...?

The incest, it is strong in those ones.

[doc03]

29. What was it something like 30% of University students

think Judge Judy is on the Supreme Court of the US? Nothing surprises me anymore about how stupid American people are.

[whistler162]

33. Wonder how many of those 222 participants

answered in a snarky way?

Gawker needs to invest in a better spell checker. Virginia <> Virgina believe <> belive

[KamaAina]

35. I doubt they can afford that

Hulk Hogan is suing them out of existence because they released his sex tape.

[mythology]

34. To be fair, the article is pretty blatantly wrong when it says

"White people’s fascination with what (hint:nothing) is biologically different between races"

There are plenty of diseases that are far more common among various racial/ethnic groups. Tay-Sachs, sickle cell anemia and even lactose intolerance.

Genetic predisposal is also linked to geographic region which does correlate to racial background in most instances.

That said, it's really sad that some medical students believe that black people feel less pain.

[Nitram]

99. Mythology, thanks for pointing that out.

Forensic scientists can also identify ethnic origin from skeletal remains. But such differences are extremely minor compared to the superstitions held by the medical students in this study. Another example of how deeply racism has permeated our society.

[Stellar]

36. Damned!!!!

What the F#@KKKKK!

[Feeling the Bern]

38. If we Jews needed the blood of unbaptized babies for our Passover Seders, then I guess

making black people super human isn't a large leap for good white Christians.

And by good leap I mean as racist as possible.

[Feeling the Bern]

45. Someone got MIRTed and I didn't even get to see what the troll said

Damn! I always miss the MIRT zaps!

[Odin2005]

42. WHAT THE FUCK???

[hobbit709]

50. Anyone believing that isn't fit to serve at ANY capacity in the medical field

Actually, they aren't fit to do anything except be a septic tank cleaner.

[brush]

52. Nailed it!

[staggerleem]

53. OK ... askin' for a peck of trouble here, but ...

... there ARE physiological differences between Caucasians and Negroes. Aside from skin color, texture and elasticity (as we all know, "black don't crack&quot , perhaps there are some differences in sensitivity to pain, as well.

Has there ever been a serious study on this? Sounds like someone at UVA should be writing a grant request right about now.

[KamaAina]

54. "Negroes"?! Dude, 1955 called. It want's its lingo back.

[BumRushDaShow]

55. Many of us have repeatedly said that DU is infested.

[steve2470]

74. +1 nt

[elljay]

59. Took you up on the challenge

and found the following paper, link below, from the publication Pain Management. Its conclusions were that African-Americans may actually be more sensitive to pain than Caucasians. I'm not going to comment on the quality of the paper, or on any other research in that field, just pointing out that this study exists.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3654683/

[Kind of Blue]

63. Thanks for looking it up!

I'll comment that the paper is found at the National Institutes of Health, an incredible research facility thats part of the Department of Health located in Bethesda, Maryland.

The study's author have conducted tons of research work in pain management. The following is from your link. Thanks.

Practice Points

- Ethnic differences in pain responses and pain management are persistent and despite advances in pain care, ethnic minorities remain at risk for inadequate pain control.
- A duty to examine any potential stereotyping, personal prejudice or bias must be present during clinical decision making and consultation should be obtained when inequitable treatment decisions are conceivable.
- Studies should report the ethnic characteristics of their samples.
- Clinicians should make every effort to increase their cultural sensitivity and awareness in order to improve treatment outcomes for minority patients.
- Given that ethnic groups may differ in the outcomes of specific treatments, ethnicity should be one factor that clinicians consider when selecting and recommending treatments.
- Future studies should also examine within-group differences and interactions with other relevant factors (e.g., sex and age).
- The mechanisms underlying ethnic differences in pain response are multifactorial and complex; longitudinal studies examining multiple factors known to influence disparities should be undertaken.

[elljay]

69. My pleasure. And, it shows why we need diversity

in the medical profession.

I used to be the only non-Latina patient of an Argentinian-American ob-gyn. She explained to me that many of her patients were older Central American women who had never been to a gynecologist before and who had never even undressed before another woman (in fact, I would occasionally hear their screams while waiting for my exam!) To get them to relax, she hung crucifixes in all of the exam rooms. I appreciated her explanation (crucifixes don't exactly make this Jew comfortable) and also appreciated her providing culturally appropriate treatment to her patients. Maybe a non-Latina physician would have eventually come to this understanding, but it would have taken a while and some patients might have fled in the interim, never to see a doctor again.

[Kind of Blue]

61. Good question. Why don't you look that up and

get back to us.

[LeftyMom]

79. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK

[Codeine]

101. Yep. It's a Brave New World here at DU. nt

[heaven05]

107. geez!

[noiretextatique]

117. Get the f outta here

If I have surgery and need pain meds, I don't want someone like you in charge.

[Rhiannon12866]

121. He's gone

[noiretextatique]

122. Good

[Rhiannon12866]

128. We try to swat these as soon as they appear

[noiretextatique]

123. No, you are fine

Your racist musings will be allowed to stand.

[Mr Dixon]

64. Madness

i Guess we have tails too..............SMH

[leftynyc]

102. I'm a 55 year old New Yorker

and I swear this is the first time I ever heard that tail nonsense. I'd kick every one of those ignorant rubes out of medical school simply because obviously after 4 years of college they're still stupid.


Edited because I'm not 5 years old.

[heaven05]

108. yeah

I was truly surprised when in Vietnam a woman told me, "you same same monkey" and meant it. One also looked for a tail on me.....it will never end I fear, the hate and the ignorance, I asked who told them we had tails, she said may chung--roughly translated as white man.

[Mr Dixon]

109. SMH

Damn shame, they been hating us for a while

[link]:

|[//link]

[Roy Rolling]

65. My last comment

"More Than One Medical Student At UVA Believes Black People Don't Feel Pain"

I am not offended as a white person, I am offended as a trained medical professional. Your post is a slam at medical students with something that you made up and is not in the article or anywhere in evidence. No students believe African-Americans don't feel pain. None.

Anyone reading the article in its entirety would understand it is not an article on feeling pain, but on the affect of racial disparities when treating sever pain with opioids.

[muriel_volestrangler]

91. The students and residents thought black nerve endings are less sensitive

Hoffman and her team asked white medical students and residents, 222 participants in total, to rate on a scale of zero to 10 the pain levels they would associate with two mock medical cases, a kidney stone and a leg fracture, for both a white and a black patient, and to recommend pain treatments based on the level of pain they thought the patients might be experiencing. They were also asked the extent to which various beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites are true or untrue; for example: that blacks age more slowly than whites; their nerve endings are less sensitive than whites’; their blood coagulates more quickly than whites’; their skin is thicker than whites’ (all false); and several other items, some of them true, such as: Whites are less susceptible to heart disease; whites are less likely to have a stroke than blacks.

The researchers found that half of the sample endorsed at least one of the false beliefs, and those who endorsed these beliefs were more likely to report lower pain ratings for the black vs. white patient, and were less accurate in their treatment recommendations for the black vs. white patient.

- See more at: https://news.virginia.edu/content/study-links-disparities-pain-management-racial-bias#sthash.6sSo7JfT.dpuf

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/03/30/1516047113.abstract

If you're a medical professional, you should be worried at the standard of intelligence of your students and residents, and their tendency to believe in urban myths based on race. Your offence is completely unwarranted. Clean up your profession, because this is malpractice.

[Leontius]

115. For everyone who is pilling on you for your comments just remember

they read but comprehension is not always a strong point with some. They also like to slant things so they can feel they're so much more liberal and racialy aware than the 'others'.

[Roy Rolling]

118. It's an important subject

I get the indignation, but they would also expect a measured and objective response in an emergency medical situation. That's how I would render care to my patients, who are frequently irrational from injury or incapacity. I am not insensitive, I am trained to be focused.

[LiberalFighter]

66. Who the hell was teaching the students?

[wolfie001]

67. These must be the future crop of Replug Doctor/Legislators

Or, as I like to refer to them: raving lunatics!

[ve7pnl]

70. Coagulation Rates - Are you sure

Everyone seems confident that this coagulation rate info is bogus.

For whatever reason many years ago when I worked in medical monitoring system development and was hanging out with doctors I got the strong impression that the coagulation rate difference was very real and significant.

So... a quick google search seems to indicate that this is not a strange non-truth.
The numbers seem real - and important.
In this study the issue is development of clots - which occurs due coagulation where it is not wanted.

http://phys.org/news/2010-08-african-americans-higher-blood-clots-drug-coated.html

For the study, researchers examined data on 7,236 patients who had stents, coated with clot-prevention drugs, implanted to prop open narrowing arteries. The drug-coated stents, also called drug-eluting stents, were implanted between mid-2003 and the end of 2008.

Even after considering other known risk factors — such as diabetes, hypertension and kidney problems — researchers found that African-Americans still experienced a higher rate of thrombosis or clotting.

"The bottom line is this is not just because this population is sicker or less compliant, but there is something else there that needs to be explored," said Ron Waksman, M.D., the study's lead author.

In the study, African-American patients were nearly three times as likely to experience clotting as non-African-American patients. African-Americans' clotting rates compared to non-African Americans were:

1.71 percent vs. 0.59 percent after 30 days;
2.25 percent vs. 0.79 percent at one year;
2.78 percent vs. 1.09 percent at two years; and
3.67 percent vs. 1.25 percent at three years.

The rate of death from all causes at three years was also higher among African-Americans, 24.9 percent vs. 13.1 percent in other races.

[KamaAina]

71. That might well explain the low life expectancy for African Americans, especially men.

Welcome to DU!

[TheSarcastinator]

73. not the Onion but Gawker

Which is even less reliable.

[noretreatnosurrender]

136. How about USA Today

Does that one work for you?

According to the school, the survey, led by Kelly M. Hoffman, a sixth-year doctoral candidate (ABD) in the social psychology program at the University of Virginia, asked 222 white medical students and residents to rate on a scale of zero to 10 the pain levels they would associate with two mock medical cases — a kidney stone and a leg fracture — for both a white and a black patient, and “to recommend pain treatments based on the level of pain they thought the patients might be experiencing.”

The survey also asked them whether they believed certain statements about whites and blacks were true, e.g., black people age more slowly than whites, black people have less sensitive nerve endings and black people’s blood coagulates more quickly. Surprisingly, over 100 students believed these fallacies to be factual.

Those who believed that information to be true rated black patients’ pain lower than they did white patients’.

“Many previous studies have shown that black Americans are undertreated … because physicians might assume black patients might abuse the medications or because they might not recognize the pain of their black patients in the first place,” said Hoffman.

http://college.usatoday.com/2016/04/05/uva-report-med-students-black-people-feel-less-pain/

[senz]

75. Sickening.

It makes me ill what AAs go through. It's inhuman and should not be tolerated.

I don't know if medical ethics are a requirement in med school, but they should be, and they should include a section on racism in the practice of medicine -- with a warning that any medical professional caught treating the races differently can lose their license.

If med schools don't have mandatory ethics courses and if states (or the fed) don't have laws against racial discrimination in medical treatment and care, they should. And because this is still the United States of America, we the people should be able to make this happen.

[Depaysement]

80. There are a lot of stupid people

I just didn't know any were doctors.

[KamaAina]

82. Um, hello? Ben Carson!

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

94. Ah, Ben Carson! There's one person who probably doesn't feel pain ...

... and doesn't appear to feel anything else, either.

Oh, well, he can go back to sleep now.

[seanjoycek476]

85. What the hell?

I wonder what schools these fools attended? Clown school? Remind me to NOT go to the hospitals these idiots are working at.

[TipTok]

87. People believe anecdotal evidence without clinical studies to support them...

Breaking news at 11...



I wonder how many folks here believe things that are factually untrue because they never gave it enough thought or did enough research?

Some high horses in this thread. Careful you don't fall off...

This could have been an educating article without all the editorializing and pushing of an agenda.

Oh well...

[MowCowWhoHow III]

92. Gawker gotta get them clicks, they've got Hogan sized damages to pay off

[caraher]

95. The UVA press release linked by Gawker is what you should read

The Gawker headline is BS but the real story is still significant... "innocent" but false belief in non-existent racial differences results in racial disparity in pain management.

researchers find that a substantial number of white medical students and residents hold false beliefs about biological differences between black and white people (e.g., black people’s skin is thicker; black people’s blood coagulates more quickly) that could affect how they assess and treat the pain experienced by black patients.

Note that this sample includes residents, who have completed medical school, and as others have noted, even med students all have 4-year college degrees. I don't think this is excusable ignorance.

[raging moderate]

103. Beneath contempt.

I thought maybe pre-med students would have moved beyond all that by now.

[freebrew]

104. Recent reports...

have it that some folk with red hair or Irish ancestry have more pain tolerance than some others.

Also, that pain meds take longer to achieve the desired result.

I have not seen or heard anything remotely like this that pertains to AA descendants.

[nyabingi]

105. Centuries of slavery and the myths created

to justify its existence are hard to get rid of.

[noretreatnosurrender]

137. Yes

and it's pathetic.

[heaven05]

106. white mythology

about the superhumaness of black people has been going on for generations. Small example: in the Southwest military campaigns against the native-Americans black soldiers(so called 'Buffalo Soldiers) were sent there because the white military commanders felt they could handle the heat better because they were African in origin and their ancestors had lived in the "jungles". These soldiers were treated horrendously by the white military establishment yet continued to perform their 'missions'. Same goes for the campaign in Cuba at Kettle Hill during the Spanish-American War. (9th and 10th Calvery(Colored) and 24th and 25th Infantray(Colored) were main units. South Pacific campaigns, WW2, same mythology applied.

So to read of this 'study' of white medical student mythological thinking continuing, I'm not surprised.

[eilen]

110. Are there really med schools with such large groups of white students?

The majority of students I see at my University Hospital are from Russia, Ukraine, Middle East, India, China and Korea. There is exactly one Fellow that is local/American/from our area. Not many white faces in the ranks of the residents and interns.

[Zira]

111. I'm white and I don't freaking understand this.

How the hell would these people come up with that crazy idea?

I'm guessing they're the biggest racists in the medical industry.

[redruddyred]

113. docs, esp the overprotected rich kids who tend to make it into med school

are horribly biased

according to over 90% of them the reason i've been effectively disabled my entire adult life is because i'm a hysterical female.

if my mind could make me sick then why would i choose a chronic severe pain disorder.

[nadinbrzezinski]

119. I have talked to several of our BLM MD students

and this would not shock them in the least. As a paramedic in the 1990s, this would not surprise me in the least either. This is part of that implicit bias

[MrScorpio]

127. The myth of the 'Magic Negro' and the implicit threat...

Old white supremacist propaganda dies hard.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

130. This goes back to the slave days....

Farmers have been telling themselves animals don't feel pain like we do in order to feel less empathy for them as they're slaughtered.

Black people were once considered to be like any other farm animal.

I bet the people who claim black people don't feel pain would claim the same about animals.