The Psychology of Health Screening

The Huffington Post:

Imagine it’s time for your annual physical. You visit your family doctor, and along with all the usual probes and tests and queries, your doctor tells you about a disease you’ve never heard of before. Called thioamine acetlyase, or TAA, deficiency, it affects the body’s normal ability to process nutrients, and can lead to severe medical complications — exhaustion, physical deterioration, even early death. Although studies indicate that 1 in 5 adults suffers from TAA deficiency, most are unaware that they even have the disease.

But there is a test that screens for TAA deficiency, your physician tells you. In fact, the results of your physical will include an assessment of your lifetime risk for TAA deficiency — unless you choose not to know. What’s your decision? Do you want information about your personal risk for this serious disorder, or would you rather not know?

Read the whole story: The Huffington Post