Scoliosis screening: A pause in the chase

With well-intentioned enthusiasm, physicians and the public band together in crusades against disease. "Search-and-destroy" missions take shape to eradicate the preventable and to detect illness in silent stages before it compromises life or function, or disfigures the unsuspecting victim. The disease is evil; the hunters, good; the clarion sounds. What could be simpler? But it is not simple. Screening carries its own forms of harm; the detection of disease is a blessing mixed with cost and anguish. Not all of those "detected" actually have the disease; not all of those who have the disease are helped by treatment; and not all of those helped by treatment would have escaped help but for the screening. The mere existence of unrecognized cases of illness is, by itself, insufficient reason to screen. The disease has many faces, and the hunt is not benign. PMC ID: PMC1646456 (December 1985)