Gun Query Off Limits for Doctors in Florida (barf alert)

Gun Query Off Limits for Doctors in Florida (barf alert): "As a primary care physician, I regularly ask patients questions that many people would consider rude, inappropriately nosy or just irrelevant in polite conversation.

Do you wear your seat belt? How much alcohol do you usually drink? Do you use recreational drugs? Have you ever injected yourself with anything? Do you have sexual relations, and if so, with men, women or both?

Questions like these have long been a standard part of medical interviewing, and for good reason. The answers may reveal clues about a person’s symptoms or physical findings on exam. If a person says he or she drinks heavily or has used intravenous drugs, I may be more alert to signs of liver problems when doing the physical exam and more inclined to order certain blood tests. The answers also help me know if the patient is at greater risk for common, yet preventable, causes of death, like H.I.V., car accidents and heart disease, so that I can counsel him or her.

There’s one customary question, though, that I’m no...

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