3 things this patient wishes doctors hadn’t said when she was a child

When treated for arthritis, she was 'cheerful, brave and compliant'
Bandaged teddy bear

An academic treated for arthritis since childhood has called on doctors to be aware of the messages they convey to their youngest patients, who absorb the lessons, some beautiful, others harmful.

In an opinion piece in JAMA Pediatrics, Dr Amy Robertson (PhD), 32, writes that having had arthritis since she was two, she’s internalised pervasive messages she received about her body from medical professionals.