The hard truth is it's normal for treatments, especially medications, not to work. But how many patients do you actually have to treat to improve things for just one even? This is where the concept 'number needed to treat' is critical to better understand so that expectations don't lead to resentments. Managing expectations as a patient is hard, it's even harder when they're unrealistic. Unfortunately, there is little conversation around what is likely to work in various settings, and what their likelihood is to compared to other options. We'll go through how you should trial medications, ways to improve communications with your provider, touch on the ecological fallacy, explain how experienced clinicians can overcome some of this, and define what evidence-based medicine actually is and should look like.

Resources:

www.iniyh.com

https://www.instagram.com/iniyhpodcast/

Timestamps:

00:00 Official Intro

00:17 Intro - It's normal for treatments not to work

03:07 Number Needed to treat within Neuropathic Pain

05:06 Trial it for 6 weeks

06:07 Context is important in Number needed to treat

10:23 It's an Average - the ecological fallacy

15:00 Why do we do it this way?

16:04 The experienced Clinician can predict

18:15 Develop good communication with your Physician

19:18 Evidence-Based Medicine

20:34 Final Point

21:54 Disclaimer