To benefit from a better medical check-up, it would be better to be well behaved and kind to your doctor, according to the results of a study published in the British Medical Journal. Indeed, rude patients would be more at risk of false diagnoses.
Researchers from Erasmus University (The Netherlands) conducted a surprising study to understand whether there was a link between bad character in patients and misdiagnosis. They carried out fictitious consultations with patients with strong character or with aggressive temperaments (insistent request for treatment, aggressiveness, refusal of treatment, lack of listening, questioning of the doctor’s competence, non-compliance, etc.) and analyzed the diagnoses of 63 physicians. The medical situations of the patients were easy to establish (pneumonia, pulmonary embolism, inflammation of the brain, hyperthyroidism, appendicitis, acute alcoholic pancreatitis). The scientists then linked the quality of the diagnosis to the character of the patients.
The conclusions of the study reveal that the diagnosis is more precise for “neutral” patients than for patients who are not easy or aggressive.
Take the time to establish a better diagnosis
The researchers also observed that the longer the doctors took to establish the check-up, the more accurate their diagnosis and the more appropriate the treatment.
“It is important for all physicians to be aware of their emotional reactions to different patient behaviors. Patient safety is at stake, ”the study authors conclude.
Read also:
Heart attacks: in women, they are sometimes due to misdiagnosis
Endometriosis: how is the diagnosis made?
Asthma: one in two children would be overdiagnosed
