To Counsel or Not to Counsel: Physician Attitudes and Experiences with Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Fecal Microbiota Transplant (FMT)

• Published in: AJOB empirical bioethics Vol. 15; no. 4; pp. 324 - 335
• Main Authors: Colt, Susannah F., Choi, Rebekah J., Wexler, Anna
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Taylor & Francis 01-10-2024
• Subjects: Adult; Attitude of Health Personnel; attitudes; Counseling; DIY medicine; Do-it-yourself; do-it-yourself fecal transplant; fecal microbiota transplant; Fecal Microbiota Transplantation; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Physicians; Qualitative Research; do-it-yourself fecal transplant; DIY medicine; Do-it-yourself; fecal microbiota transplant; attitudes
• ISSN: 2329-4515; 2329-4523; 2329-4523
• DOI: 10.1080/23294515.2024.2370776

In the early 2010s, a phenomenon known as do-it-yourself (DIY) fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) emerged as lay individuals began self-administering FMTs at home. Although prior research indicates that many individuals who perform DIY FMT have sought advice from healthcare providers, to date there has been no investigation of physicians' experiences with DIY FMT. The objective of this qualitative study was to examine the attitudes of physicians who offer FMT regarding the practice of DIY FMT and to assess how they navigated the ethical challenges of patient requests for DIY FMT.
We recruited physicians listed on two patient-created online databases of FMT providers. All physicians who indicated having been approached for advice about DIY FMT were included in the study. Semi-structured interviews with physicians explored their attitudes toward and experiences with DIY FMT.
Of 18 physicians interviewed, one reported having provided counsel in response to an initial patient inquiry about DIY FMT, 2 indicated they explicitly advised against DIY FMT and refused to provide advice, and 15 fell in a middle category of discouraging DIY FMT and discussing reasons why. Among the physicians in this third category, four reported that they had changed their approach to providing counsel in response to a patient telling them they were going to perform DIY FMT anyway.
Physicians in our study employed a wide range of strategies for promoting safety in the DIY FMT context, from explicitly advising against the procedure to the provision of guidance aimed at mitigating potential harms. While there has been increasing attention to the practices of DIY medicine, this study underscores the need for greater attention to the ethically complex situations that physicians face when patients request guidance for unapproved at-home treatments.