Papathanasopoulos Panagiotis, Messinis Lambros, Lyros Epameinondas, Nikolakopoulou Anastasia, Gourzoulidou Eftymia, Malefaki Sonia
Department of Neurology, Neuropsychology Section, University of Patras Medical School, Patras, Greece.
J Neurol. 2008 Dec;255(12):1963-9. doi: 10.1007/s00415-008-0067-8. Epub 2008 Dec 20.
In the frame of current treatment options for multiple sclerosis (MS) and recommendations for early intervention, we investigated the practice and attitudes of neurologists towards MS-diagnosis communication in Greece. We constructed and sent out a 22-item questionnaire to neurologists practising in different employment settings and geographic regions in Greece. Overall, 217 (37.41 %) of 580 neurologists replied. The vast majority (94.9 %) informs the patient of a definite MS diagnosis, and 73.6 % do so immediately, but only 41.7 % use the term multiple sclerosis. Furthermore, neurologists strongly agreed that timing of diagnosis communication depends to a large extent on the individual patient's personality (62.5 %) and mental state (52.3 %). Most neurologists (78.7 %) inform relatives about the diagnosis, but only in the presence of the patient. In cases where disclosure was delayed, 59.5 % noted that they did not observe any changes as regards the trust or confidence of their patients towards them. Most neurologists also noted that education level (72 %) and mental state (51.9 %), at the time of disclosure influenced patients who did not fully understand the meaning of their diagnosis. This survey provided some useful new findings with respect to MS diagnosis communication; however, the questions of how and possibly how much to communicate warrant further cross-cultural investigation.
在当前多发性硬化症（MS）的治疗选择框架以及早期干预建议的背景下，我们调查了希腊神经科医生在MS诊断沟通方面的做法和态度。我们编制并向在希腊不同就业环境和地理区域执业的神经科医生发放了一份包含22个条目的问卷。总体而言，580名神经科医生中有217名（37.41%）回复了问卷。绝大多数（94.9%）会告知患者明确的MS诊断，73.6%会立即告知，但只有41.7%使用“多发性硬化症”这个术语。此外，神经科医生强烈认同诊断沟通的时机在很大程度上取决于个体患者的性格（62.5%）和精神状态（52.3%）。大多数神经科医生（78.7%）会告知亲属诊断情况，但仅在患者在场时。在诊断披露延迟的情况下，59.5%的人指出他们没有观察到患者对他们的信任或信心有任何变化。大多数神经科医生还指出，披露时的教育水平（72%）和精神状态（51.9%）会影响那些不完全理解诊断含义的患者。这项调查提供了一些关于MS诊断沟通的有用新发现；然而，关于如何沟通以及可能沟通多少的问题值得进一步的跨文化研究。
