Alvarez del Río Asunción
Departamento de Psicología Médica, Psiquiatría y Salud Mental, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
Rev Invest Clin. 2009 Mar-Apr;61(2):173-80.
The patient's suffering and the physicians' duty towards it is reviewed in this article. After having defined suffering and having analyzed its main characteristics, it is questioned if there are limits to the physicians' responsibility and how can they succeed in attending the patients' suffering. Physicians find especially difficult to deal with when they realize that the patient's death is unavoidable. Finally, it is important to take into account: 1) that there is something about the patient's suffering that only he can ameliorate, 2) that it is important to question how physicians can prepare themselves to face their own suffering.
本文回顾了患者的痛苦以及医生对此的责任。在定义了痛苦并分析了其主要特征之后，人们质疑医生的责任是否存在限度，以及他们如何能够成功应对患者的痛苦。当医生意识到患者的死亡不可避免时，他们会发现尤其难以应对。最后，重要的是要考虑到：1）患者的痛苦中有一些只有他自己才能缓解的因素；2）质疑医生如何为面对自己的痛苦做好准备很重要。
