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Technical Terms

A MyEpilepsyTeam Member asked a question 💭
Hartford, AL

Does anyone use technical terms when talking to your doctor?
Such as aura or grand mal or partial seizures.

December 15, 2020
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A MyEpilepsyTeam Member

I use the old terms (because those are the ones that I remember). And I know, from my training at Treadwell Library about Plain English, that if I am confused about anything that any of my doctors or other medical personnel says to me to ask questions. Doctors will tend to default to speaking in technical terms --think of it as their primary language, but I also know that the director of Treadwell Library was part of a committee that created a video for all doctors to watch (and maybe some other medical personnel at a later date) to remind them to use Plain English. Of course, it is all about the average science vocabulary in your nation. In the case of the USA, the average science vocabulary is that of a 4th grader. Thus, if a doctor uses Hypertension instead of High Blood Pressure, they can get a different reaction. Also, too many patients do not know the names of the medications they are on but only know them by color and shape. And, most importantly, most patience will not ask questions of their doctor or even ask the doctor to repeat what was just said. And they do not know their rights -- among which is a second opinion -- or understand that doctors are human beings too, thus they also make mistakes, especially in the modern hospitals and large medical practices where they have a set maximum time to spend with each patient and are expected to reach their daily quota (created by the economic number crunchers of the institute that are simply focused on the economics of the business, thus do not view patients as human beings but rather simply numbers on their spreadsheets.

December 17, 2020
A MyEpilepsyTeam Member

I agree with Randy, I prefer using the old terms for seizures. And I like to use the KISS(Keep It Simple System). But doctors always use the technical terms. And i always remind them i am not a doctor so tell me in patient terms.

December 15, 2020
A MyEpilepsyTeam Member

I prefer using the old terms for seizures.
Peti Mal ( absence seizures )
Grand Mal ( Tonic Clonic )
Complex Partial Seizures ( focal impaired awareness seizures)
Simple Partial Seizures ( Focal aware seizures )
Drop seizures ( Atonic Seizures )
auras

December 15, 2020 (edited)
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A MyEpilepsyTeam Member

With regards to the changing of the terminology, the problem is that it is not even the doctors who are responsible but rather the grand committees who are responsible for providing the material for the new "and improved" versions of the the volumes from the international library of medicine.
There has been arguments by the doctors who treat mental disorders for decades with these governing bodies because they continue to refer the physical ones as disorders but continue to refer to mental ones as illness, thus too much of the population is lead to believe that Epilepsy, Dementia, Masochism, and any other mental disorder that you can think of are similar to the common cold or flu rather to blindness, paralysis, MS, etc.

December 21, 2020
A MyEpilepsyTeam Member

@A MyEpilepsyTeam Member. I agree with keeping it simple its confusing and I hate it when they change up the terminology.

December 17, 2020
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