Risk associated with medical interventions and medical errors
- Adverse effects of prescription drugs or vaccines
- Overuse of drugs (causing, for example, antibiotic resistance in bacteria)
- Prescription drug interaction
- Incorrect prescription, perhaps due to illegible handwriting or computer typos
- Faulty procedures, techniques, information, methods, or equipment
- Negligence
- Hospital-acquired infections
Causes and consequences of iatrogenesis
- Iatrogenic conditions resulting from medical treatments
- Incidence of iatrogenesis may be misleading in some cases
- Actual negligence or faulty procedures
- Negligence leading to mistrust between patients and providers
- Adverse effects of drugs and vaccines
Adverse effects of medical treatment
- Drug interactions and allergic reactions
- Evolution of antibiotic resistance in bacteria
- Toxic effects of certain drugs and vaccines
- Mechanical adverse effects due to outdated surgical instruments
- Psychiatric misdiagnosis and iatrogenic complications
Iatrogenic poverty
- Impoverishment induced by medical care
- Catastrophic health expenditure leading to poverty
- Health care expenses causing personal bankruptcies
- Vicious cycle of illness, ineffective therapies, and indebtedness
- Lack of regulatory and protective capacity in some countries
Social and cultural iatrogenesis
- Clinical iatrogenesis: injury done to patients by ineffective treatments
- Social iatrogenesis: medicalization of life and unrealistic health demands
- Cultural iatrogenesis: destruction of traditional ways of dealing with health
- Medical education contributing to medicalization of society
- Iatrogenic poverty as a manifestation of social iatrogenesis
Iatrogenesis is the causation of a disease, a harmful complication, or other ill effect by any medical activity, including diagnosis, intervention, error, or negligence. First used in this sense in 1924, the term was introduced to sociology in 1976 by Ivan Illich, alleging that industrialized societies impair quality of life by overmedicalizing life. Iatrogenesis may thus include mental suffering via medical beliefs or a practitioner's statements. Some iatrogenic events are obvious, like amputation of the wrong limb, whereas others, like drug interactions, can evade recognition. In a 2013 estimate, about 20 million negative effects from treatment had occurred globally. In 2013, an estimated 142,000 persons died from adverse effects of medical treatment, up from an estimated 94,000 in 1990.
iatro- + -genesis
iatrogenesis (plural iatrogeneses)