Symptom Bias: Definition, Identification and Avoidance

A common criticism of medicine is that there is often too much focus on treating symptoms instead of treating patients. This criticism and its sentiment - among other factors – have motivated many 'humanistic' or 'non-reductionist' approaches to medicine. My aim here is not to detail or defend any of these approaches, but rather to better understand what is at the heart of the 'common criticism.' I contend that this criticism is best understood as a criticism of a kind of bias I here introduce: symptom bias. Symptom bias occurs when treating symptoms becomes the ends of intervening instead of the means towards health or well-being. Without naming and understanding this bias, even the 'non-reductionist' approaches to medicine may perpetuate it.