History of Overdiagnosis(1): William B. Carrey MD, FAAP

Today I read the commentary of Dr.William B. Carrey in Pediatrics about a paper that was published online April 1, 2013.  The paper is about the hazards of medicalizing  regurgitation in healthy infants.  Crying and spitting up is a common, usually normal condition in healthy infants.  In his commentary Dr.Carrey cites two of his papers about the risk of Overdiagnosis that were published in journal of Pediatrics about forty years ago:

Carey WB, Sibinga MS. Avoiding pediatric pathogenesis in the management of acute minor illness. Pediatrics. 1972;9(4):553–562

Siblinga MS, Carey WB. Dealing with unnecessary medical trauma to children. Pediatrics.1976;57(5):800–802

Dr.Carey wrote in his commentary that the impact of these two articles in the interim is not known.  Here is the latest sentence of Dr.Carey in his commentary:

"The way we identify and deal with annoying normal or insignificant variations and how we discuss them with parents makes a big difference in the quality of care."