Collusion in doctor-patient communication about imminent death: an ethnographic study.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To discover and explore the factors that result in "false optimism about recovery" observed in patients with small cell lung cancer.

Design

A qualitative observational (ethnographic) study in two stages over four years.

Setting

Lung diseases ward and outpatient clinic in university hospital in the Netherlands.

Participants

35 patients with small cell lung cancer.

Results

"False optimism about recovery" usually developed during the (first) course of chemotherapy and was most prevalent when the cancer could no longer be seen in the x ray pictures. This optimism tended to vanish when the tumour recurred, but it could develop again, though to a lesser extent, during further courses of chemotherapy. Patients gradually found out the facts about their

SUBMITTER: The AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC27539 | biostudies-literature | 2000 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature