Comments on: House – Episode 6: “The Socratic Method”

By: Ren

Ren — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 04:46:37 +0000

I’m watching these reruns of House M.D. because a colleague recommended it.

If you listen very carefully you can start to learn a lot about some of the same things that are done with every patient. It’s fun to learn stuff about what Doctors really do which is why I hope the medical research and advising gets better and more accurate with each show.

Something I learned..
A CT Scan — computerized tomography using many x-rays to show a cross-section of the patient’s body

By: Dee

Dee — Sun, 15 May 2011 08:37:27 +0000

Sceptical me, you’re absolutely right. Psychosis and Psychopathy are completely different – Wilson’s could technically cause psychosis (rare – it’s more likely to cause dementia-like symptoms – but it happens), but it would definitely NOT cause psychopathy. Psychopathy is a personality-oriented problem that develops over a long period of time, with great contribution of social factors.

By: Sceptical me

Sceptical me — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 16:30:10 +0000

I am confused about one thing: Wilson’s disease is the diagnosis in both this episode, and also in the Episode REMORSE (S6, E11). But while in one episode the patient shows signs of Psychosis, on the other the patient show signs of Psychopathy… I’m not an MD but I don’t think Psychosis and Psychopathy are the same… Right?

By: 24

24 — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 16:37:42 +0000

i started watchin house a couple of months ago and ended up watchin the first 3 series within a few weeks. I have no medical background so can’t dispute the whole “it clearly wasn’t schizophrenia” thing, but i have noticed that throughout the show, there are examples of patients that have been passed from doctor to doctor, all diagnosing the same thing or a patient already having a disease and it being ignored until the “eureka” moment. Maybe this was part of the confusion of the diagnose,as well as poor research.

Also, Scrubs had an episode where the patient had Wilson’s Disease but the patient died as they found out too late.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 23:58:16 +0000

First of all, schizophrenia certainly can present anywhere between late teens and mid thirties, especially in women, who tend to develop symptoms later in life. It is possible for people to develop their first symptoms later than that. It’s just rare. It’s not a fact that people ‘do not develop new-onset schizophrenia’ at that age.

Secondly, to the daughter of a Wilson’s patient, diseases vary from person to person. Some people who have it get liver failure in their late teens and early twenties, others get to their forties before having any symptoms.

I was dissapointed that this episode had such a fairytale ending considering that the show generally addresses medical, ethical, etc debates and concerns very well. They had a chance to really deal with the lifelong consequences of a disease like Schizophrenia, and of taking the drugs which treat them. Even the new Atypical Antipsychotics can be really unpleasant in terms of side-effects. Instead they just used it as part of the medical mystery. Which may have made for an interesting conclusion to the mystery, but the drama fell flat as a result, and I was personally highly unsatisfied.

By: sadbuddha

sadbuddha — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 00:26:47 +0000

i love this episode,scary how psych. disorders can be totally misdiagnosed& ruin peples lives. it also showed some rare pathos from house .Tis good to see some empathy frm him as he sees himself mirrored in the extremely smart/isolated son.
Thought the ending was cruel-overdone,Telling the emotionally fragile kid that he just wanted him out of his life.-asshole
(god wouldnt want house to show too much humanity for too long)
that was just cruel-the kid admired him& lacked male father figures.No-one gets a break with house.!He shouldve become a lawyer not a doctor!kate

By: CJ

CJ — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 17:29:25 +0000

Another clue that would have led the team to the diagnosis much faster would have been a good medical history. Since Wilson’s is an inherited disease, possibly relatives were diagnosed with the disease. This would have immediately suggested the possibility.

Perhaps because the patient was “schizophrenic,” they would not have set a lot of store in her accounts, so did not take a thorough history themselves. And American physicians, especially ER physicians, are hanpered by not having a centralized, electronic medical record system which might have provided such details.

Dr. House does make an attempt to get previous records. [phone call]: “Listen, you treated a patient about eighteen months ago, a woman named Lucille Palmeiro, I wonder if you recall running any tests… [ Dr. Walters hangs up on him ] …at all.” But unfortunately, he makes the calls apparently in the dead of the night……

I liked the ending. I thought it was hilarious that House ‘blamed’ it on Cuddy. What a thing, you see, for the son to have to carry around, that his mother did that, even out of love. This is part of the appeal of House – his breaking, bending of the rules. Can one image Dr. Welby doing such a thing? :O)

By: daughter

daughter — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 06:15:38 +0000

Interesting – I didn’t think a person could survive into their 30’s or 40’s with untreated Wilson’s. My mother has it, and from her stories I don’t think she could have lived into her 20’s without treatment. She also has a clotting disorder that can cause excessive bleeding. It’s called polycythemia vera, which means she has too many blood cells. But that wasn’t what the writers chose. Otherwise it would have been really eerie to watch.

By: scientist

scientist — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:35:49 +0000

I love that he was able to see the KF rings so easily. In reality, there are like 2 neuro-opthomologists in NYC that are reccomended for this screening (not that others might not pick them up) but I guess that goes back to the doctors doing all their own tests. I think it would be diagnostically superior to have a completely integrated system whether that be through 1 person (very very smart and well trained…) or a team that always works together, but currently our system is not set up that way.

As a note, I work in a psych. dept. and we diagnose schizophrenia that started in 30’s (or later) all the time…psych. in unclear. And I don’t think a single one of these people was tested for Wilsons or it was even mentioned.

By: Karpov

Karpov — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:10:39 +0000

Watcher… Maybe it was a year since the beggining of the chapter… that will explain the happy birthday song. :)