When Can Making Medical Decisions Be Hazardous to Your Health?

Huffington Post:

“Take two aspirin and call me in the morning” may be really good advice after all. That’s because a doctor’s decision-making abilities may be related to the time of day. Making decisions, choices, seems highly affected by what social psychologists call “decision fatigue,” or the gradual deterioration in decision making as mental exhaustion sets in. A doctor’s diagnosis after a stressful day may not be as well contemplated as it was first thing in the morning or after some rest, nourishment and not having plowed through a thousand decisions.

New York Times science columnist John Tierney wrote about the phenomenon of “decision fatigue” in an essay adapted from Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, a new book he co-authored with social psychologist Roy F. Baumeister (New York Times Magazine, Aug. 17, 2011). Tierney concludes that the mental energy dedicated to carefully weighing options and making good decisions can be affected by “ego depletion.” Decision making ability is like a muscle: It is fueled by glucose, strengthened by self-control, enhanced with practice and fatigued by overuse. The more decisions we make, the more likely we will deplete our mental energy, a finite — but renewable — resource.

Read the whole story: Huffington Post