Cancer patients and doctors might collude in false optimism
Many cancer patients, when they fear their prognosis is poor, do not
ask for precise information and do not hear it if it is provided by the
doctor. There are no detailed studies of how, in a cultural climate of
openness, doctors and patients maintain a mutual pretence of "not
knowing" a poor prognosis. On p 1376 The et al report an
observational ethnographic study of 35 patients with untreatable small
cell lung cancer in a university clinic. The research showed how
doctors and patients ignore the issue of prognosis by focusing on the
present and on "what can be done."
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- Collusion in doctor-patient communication about imminent death: an ethnographic study
- Anne-Mei The, Tony Hak, Gerard Koëter, and Gerrit van der Wal
BMJ 2000 321: 1376-1381.[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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