Contraindication

Article summary

In medicine, a contraindication is a condition (a situation or factor) that serves as a reason not to take a certain medical treatment due to the harm that it would cause the patient. Contraindication is the opposite of indication, which is a reason to use a certain treatment. Absolute contraindications are contraindications for which there are no reasonable circumstances for undertaking a course of action (that is, overriding the prohibition). For example: * Children and teenagers with viral infections should not be given aspirin because of the risk of Reye syndrome. * A person with an anaphylactic food allergy should never eat the food to which they are allergic. * A person with hemochromatosis should not be administered iron preparations. * Some medications are so teratogenic that they are absolutely contraindicated in pregnancy; examples include thalidomide and isotretinoin. Relative contraindications are contraindications for circumstances in which the patient is at higher risk of complications from treatment, but these risks may be outweighed by other considerations or mitigated by other measures. For example, pregnant individuals should normally avoid getting X-rays, but the risk from radiography may be outweighed by the benefit of diagnosing (and then treating) a serious condition such as tuberculosis.…

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1. Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
2. Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
3. If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?

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