Patient—Doctor Interactions: Emotional Cues and Discussing Prognosis

Abstract

The patient—doctor consultation in general practice is often an emotional interaction — for both the patient and the GP. The exchange of life stories and experiences may be joyful or sad, distressing or precipitate anger. Patients may not express their emotions in words. Depending on their personalities, reaction to distressing news and their ideas and expectations, they may say things that are dissonant from how they are feeling. The GP with good communication skills may be able to elicit the patient's feelings through a combination of intuition based on experience, previous knowledge of the patient and the patient's body language including non-verbal cues. Then the GP must acknowledge and respond appropriately to them. Non-effective communication may worsen psychological distress and delay adjustment to the disease or condition.