Some thoughts on iatrogenic disease

So much has changed in medicine in the past 20 or 30 years, but some things have remained a constant part of the medical scene--such a patients suffering 'doctor-induced anxieties'. This paper, first written in 1967 in the early days of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, looks at the causes of iatrogenic disease and proposes some common sense precepts for young doctors that will spare their patients some melancholic experiences.