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xcityfolk t1_iyjb9bn wrote

Reply to comment by neonlumberjack in Looking for a doctor who doesn’t use BMI by [deleted]

> “denied being depressed”

This is medical speak for, "when I asked the patient if they had depression they said they didn't." For instance, if a doctor said to a patient, "do you have any pain that I should be aware of," and the patient said they did not, the doctor would note on the chart, "patient denies pain." It doesn't mean, that you argued about it or that there was some kind of disagreement, just that his findings for depression were negative.

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neonlumberjack t1_iyjbp0e wrote

Nothing else was worded that way. Everything else was worded as “doesn’t have x, y, or z”.

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xcityfolk t1_iyjfjww wrote

I write charts every day and that context is way more common that "doesn't have.." We use deny to describe pertinent negatives and complains to describe pertinent positives.

So a person walks into the ER trouble breathing and chest pain, you might write, "patient complains of epigastric pain, palpation in negative for rebound. Patient also complains of pain during inspiration. Patient denies any injury or illness prior to onset."

It just means that the patient said they weren't sick or got hurt before the pain, it's a pertinent negative. I don't know your doctor of course but this is the standard. It's been like this for a long time and people often confuse the context the way you are.

read this:

https://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/the-patient-denies.373980/

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