Would you be more anxious about having erectile dysfunction or impotence?
Well, a recent study (via the ACP Internist) showed that when a diagnosis was presented in medical terms, versus its colloquial equivalent, it was “perceived as being more severe, more apt to be a disease, and more rare, than when they were given a layperson’s label.”
Apparently, this only applied to more recent diseases. “Established” medical conditions like hypertension and myocardial infarction did not show this finding.
As patients become more familiar with these relatively newer conditions, some of which have been publicized by the pharmaceutical industry, I’d expect this finding to fade over time.
Related posts:
- Diagnosis to chronic disease management
- Should patients bear some responsibility when doctors miss a diagnosis?
- Will banning drug company sponsorship harm patients?
- Should you give patients their office notes?
- How banning pharmaceutical gifts to doctors may be hurting the economy
- Should patients lie to their doctors?
- Patients managing their own care
KevinMD.com on Facebook
{ 1 comment }
Speaking for us patients — we want you to use both. We want to know that a more colloquial (”layperson’s”)label is the same as the more medical term. We want you to manage our expectations regardless of what the “real” name is vs the one we have heard previously.
This should be about communicating what patients need to know, and not about choosing one delivery approach vs another.
Trisha Torrey
Every Patient’s Advocate
http://patients.about.com
Comments on this entry are closed.