Clinical judgments, not algorithms, are key to patient safety—an essay by David Healy and Dee Mangin (2019)
Clinical judgments, not algorithms, are key to patient safety—an essay by David Healy and Dee Mangin BMJ 2019 ; 367 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l5777 (Published 02 October 2019) Cite this as: BMJ 2019;367:l5777 David Healy , professor 1 , Dee Mangin , professor 2 Author affiliations Department of Psychiatry, Bangor University, Wales Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University, Ontario Correspondence to: david.healy54@googlemail.com When it comes to detecting harms related to drugs, clinicians’ and patients’ judgment trumps trials, say David Healy and Dee Mangin . Failure to realise this is the greatest threat to the safety of medicines Immediately on taking a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), most people have some genital anaesthesia. 1 This may be aggravated on withdrawal of the drug and can remain for years after treatment has stopped, constituting post-SSRI se