Dealing with doctors, denial, and death : a guide to living well with serious illness / Aroop Mangalik, MD.

Often when death is the inevitable and impending outcome of a medical diagnosis, doctors are reluctant to discuss alternatives to treatment, feeding into a culture of denial that can result in expensive, ineffective, and unnecessary over-treatment that may or may not extend life but almost always damages the patient's quality of life. Here, Aroop Mangalik, a seasoned doctor and researcher, looks at the ways in which we are accustomed to treating illness at all costs, even at the expense of the quality of a patient's life. He considers our culture of denial, the medical profession's role in overtreating patients and end-of-life care, and the patient's options and role in these decisions. The goal is to help patients and families make informed decisions that may help the seriously ill live better with their illnesses. This profoundly empowering book will help people make informed decisions about their lives and medical care, especially those who have a life-threatening or life-changing illness themselves or have a family member living with one. Incorporating specific questions for patients to ask their doctors and discuss with their families, Dealing with Doctors, Denial, and Death provides an analysis of the various forces that influence our decision-making. This book also examines the professional, psychological, economic, and social pressures that influence physicians treating seriously ill patients, including those that lead doctors to recommend treatments that may be futile. It concludes with resources that seriously ill patients and their families can call upon to give them support and assist with the logistical, emotional, and spiritual challenges of end-of-life care. -- from dust jacket.