I am A Doctor with a BIG problem….(please read below and resolve my conflict. It is destroying my career)?

Question by Bob: I am A Doctor with a BIG problem….(please read below and resolve my conflict. It is destroying my career)?
I am a regular allopathic MD doctor but am very impressed with Homeopathy and alternative medicine; have read a lot about them. I am also very honest with my patients. Now when i want to give a medicine to my patient, i start thinking: “Maybe there is a better treatment for this disease in homeopathy (or for that matter accupuncture or herbal medicine)” . Knowing fully well the side effects of all my allopathic medicines, i feel guilty that why i am prescribing these dangerous drugs to my patients. I believe it is my moral duty to study ALL other alternative medicine practices and then treat my patient with the BEST form of treatment”…BUT THEN i start thinking that all these othar alternative medicines have not been FDA approved and have not been tested in large randomised controlled trials, so maybe they will do some harm to my patient, or maybe they wont work? this is a never ending dialogue that goes on in my mind causing much anxiety.so much that i had to quit my hospital job
When i read my allopathic medical books, i start having the same dialogue in my mind . I feel that my books are not “perfect” (all other MD doctors that i know of consider their books “perfect” and “the final word in treatment of diseases”). BUT not for me: For example if i am reading the treatment of a heart attack in my book, it says that you give injection streptokinase which costs $ 100 and sometimes has bad side effects. I start wondering why should we not try the homeopathic remedy for heart attack? (Arnica 1M and lachesis 1M) which costs only $ 10 and has no side effects??? I also think that maybe the “BIG PHARMA” money hungry companies dont want doctors to read about alternative drugs; so they dont tell us about them in our regular allopathic textbooks (conspiracy theory). PLEASE RESOLVE THIS CONFLICT FOR ME . IT IS DESTROYING MY WHOLE LIFE AND MY WHOLE CAREER TO THE POINT THAT SOMETIMES I WANT TO COMMIT SUICIDE TO GET RID OF THE ANXIETY THAT IS GENERATED BY THIS CONFLICT !

Best answer:

Answer by rwfan22
I think that your best option is to present both options to your patient. Present the medicines to them and tell them that there are side effects and how likely the effects are to occur and to what extent etc… then present the homopathic remedies that you know without a doubt are safe. If you are not 100% sure then it is not safe to present those options. Then have open dialoge with your patient and let them decide which option is best while still reserving the right to change their mind and try the other treatment if their chosen treatment isn’t working to their satisfaction.

Add your own answer in the comments!