The combination of illness, an unfamiliar environment and perhaps some subtle underlying dementia can cause otherwise completely competent elderly patients to become disoriented.

The recent news has caused many doctors and patients to revisit the recommendations.

Occasionally, laxatives act unpredictably, causing patients to soil themselves before they can get to a toilet.

Deinstitutionalization caused psychiatric patients of the nearby Pilgrim State Hospital to be hastily relocated to rental housing downtown, often without sufficient professional support.

These wounds cause patients severe emotional and physical stress and create a significant financial burden on patients and the whole healthcare system.

And that may cause patients to overlook the fact that any invasive operation can have complications, including infection, scarring, brain damage (from anesthesia) and death.

The usual method of sealing wounds by searing with a red-hot iron often failed to arrest the bleeding and caused patients to die of shock.

Unnecessary treatments increase costs and can cause patients unnecessary anxiety.

It can be prescribed, therefore, in small doses over an extended period of time without causing patients to develop and sustain an addiction.

Serious illnesses like cancer may cause patients or family caregivers to have doubts about their beliefs or religious values and cause much spiritual distress.