2010 Volume 50 Issue 3 Pages 209-216
Many middle-aged to elderly women may develop essential hypertension, diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or urinary disturbance. Although each disease causes characteristic complaints, women in this age group often express a variety of other indefinite complaints. These underlying complaints along with indefinite complaints cause a remarkable deterioration of their QOL. It is not sufficient to treat only the underlying disease. The other abnormalities that cause various indefinite complaints require appropriate management. Some doctors usually diagnose a female patient's illness clinically based on her chief complaints. However, other doctors may diagnose such illness based not only on her chief complaints but also on her indefinite complaints. In the treatment of middle-aged to elderly women, the latter group of doctors may have an advantage in improving the patient's condition because these older patients have a greater number of indefinite complaints than younger patients. In other words, the former group of doctors "treats the illness" and the latter group "treats the patient." "Treating the patient" can improve the patient's QOL, which is essential to maintaining health. Questionnaires are very effective in eliciting the patient's abnormalities and facilitate the administration of medicine to patients. These questionnaires consist of simplified menopausal index (SMI) and Kupperman index to diagnose a menopausal disorder, SDS (Self-rating Depression Scale), SRQ-D (Self-Rating Questionnaire For Depression), and HDRS (Hamilton Depression Rating Scale) to diagnose depression, and OABSS (Overactive Bladder Symptom Score) to diagnose overactive bladder (a urinary disorder). We propose that "treating the patient" is very important and beneficial for middle-aged to elderly women after a medical examination by interview and filling out a questionnaire.
