A 'consensus decision' is when the members of a group choose, collectively, between mutually exclusive actions. In humans, consensus decisions are often made democratically or in an 'equally shared' manner, i.e. all group members contribute to the decision. Biologists are only now realizing that shared consensus decisions also occur in social animals (other than eusocial insects). Sharing of de...

tered the term, “shared decision making” (SDM) for the first time. It was in a paper that stated that a doctor needs to use SDM before instituting an antipsychotic drug with a “black box warning” to treat psychotic symptoms in people with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). DLB is a variant of Parkinson’s disease (PD) in which dementia precedes motor signs, whereas PD with dementia starts with mot...

DURING THE 20TH CENTURY, MEDICAL DECISION MAKing shifted from a paternalistic approach to an autonomy-based standard in the United States. Now, in the 21st century, the pendulum is swinging back and the medical community and the public are increasingly embracing shared decision making. In many other parts of the world paternalism remained the primary approach, yet there is now a move toward sha...

BACKGROUND Shared decision making (SDM), a process by which health professionals and patients go through the decision-making process together to agree on treatment, is a promising strategy for promoting diet-related decisions that are informed and value based and to which patients adhere well. The objective of the present study was to identify dietitians' salient beliefs regarding their exercis...