Risk, rationality, and regret: responding to the uncertainty of childhood food anaphylaxis. Issue 1 (15th June 2005)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hu, W; Kerridge, I; Kemp, A
• Is Part Of: Medical humanities. Volume 31:Issue 1(2005)
• Page Start: 12
• Page End: 16
• Publication Date: 2005-06-15
• Subjects: risk -- rationality -- emotions -- food allergy -- clinical decision making; Medicine and the humanities -- Periodicals; Medical ethics -- Periodicals; 616.1
• DOI: 10.1136/jmh.2004.000179
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1468-215X

Abstract

Abstract : Risk and uncertainty are unavoidable in clinical medicine. In the case of childhood food allergy, the dysphoric experience of uncertainty is heightened by the perception of unpredictable danger to young children. Medicine has tended to respond to uncertainty with forms of rational decision making. Rationality cannot, however, resolve uncertainty and provides an insufficient account of risk. This paper compares the medical and parental accounts of two peanut allergic toddlers to highlight the value of emotions in decision making. One emotion in particular, regret, assists in explaining the actions taken to prevent allergic reactions, given the diffuse nature of responsibility for children. In this light, the assumption that doctors make rational judgments while patients have emotion led preferences is a false dichotomy. Reconciling medical and lay accounts requires acknowledgement of the interrelationship between the rational and the emotional, and may lead to more appropriate clinical decision making under conditions of uncertainty.