Can anyone tell me the medical term/word for situations where the treatment/cure is worse than the disease?

Question

I'm looking for a specific, actual term.

Answer 1

There is no one word for this in medicine - but in military history terms, such a cure would be a "Pyrrhic Victory" - a victory with devastating cost to the victor.

"iatrogenic" means caused by the medical care but does not necessarily imply that the iatrogenic problem created is worse than the disease.

For instance, hair loss from chemotherapy for acute leukemia is an iatrogenic problem. The hair loss is caused by the doctor's treatment. The result of not treating acute leukemia with chemotherapy is always death. Patients with acute leukemia have to decide which is worse - temporary hair loss or death within a few weeks with no treatment.

On the other hand, chemotherapy for advanced pancreatic cancer may do more harm than good. Chemotherapy does not offer a real chance of cure for extensive, unresectable pancreas cancer. It might be wise to chose no chemotherapy treatment in that situation - though many patients want to try 'something'.
I spent a lot of time trying to talk people out of taking chemotherapy for some types of cancer.

People should understand that there are hundreds of different cancers and hundreds of chemotherapy drug combinations using more than fifty drugs. Cancer is not one thing. Chemotherapy is not one thing.

Oh, back to your question - here's the breakdown of the word "iatrogenic." It comes from the Greek roots "iatros" meaning "the healer or physician" + "gennan" meaning "as a product of" = due to the doctor.

Answer 2

Malpractice?
Actually all treatments have a risk versus benefit analysis associated with them. If the treatment is worse than the disease, why do it? Even chemotherapy has the benefit of potentially extending life versus the risk of feeling very sick as side effect. In medicine there is sometimes a tendency to view success in how long the patient lives, but by sacrificing quality of life.

Answer 3

Best Answer:
n. remepeiormobus - pronounced rem-pay-or-mor-bus
From Latin roots for "cure" "worsens" and "disease"

P.S. Yep, I made that up - but it's also right. Look it up on Google translate as "reme-peior-morbus"

Answer 4

its called iatrogenic disease: a disease caused by giving or doing a wrong procedure to the patient which results in a condition worse that the disease itself or the development of another disease/condition as a result of a treatment given by a medical practitioner to a patient.

Answer 5

Yes. Chemotherapy.

Answer 6

Yes! A Doctor's mistake, again

Answer 7

Have to agree with the answer, CHEMOTHERAPY. My friend has bilateral breast CA. Says she is sick for 3 days after Chemo. WITHOUT it she feels fine.....

Answer 8

sorry....i have to say 3rd's to the chemotherapy....i just said no to it this past year and have no regrets (it was either that or no fingernails :-( )
but i'm glad someone had the actual word for it :-)

Answer 9

chemo thearepy