Peace

Abstract

The description of any illness depends on the point in its natural history at which the description is made-no less in describing the appearance of a repeat-prescription case than in describing a case of measles. In the early days of the study, although a general pattern of sequences in the doctor-patient relationship emerged, it was difficult to discern a typical and recurring pattern. At last we realized that the contrasting and conflicting pictures of repeat-prescription cases that were emerging were due, not to random or fundamental differences, but to the fact that these cases were being reported at completely arbitrary points in their natural history.