Comments from healthy people that may stress patients

Overview

The article deals with stress reactions of patients induced by uncalled-for comments from healthy people about a patient’s illness. They mainly result from incomprehension and ignorance about the course of a disorder and its reaction to various forms of patient’s stress. Apatient’s subjective experience is not always identical to the scientific definition or diagnosis of a disease. A healthy person then does not understand the sick one. This often leads to an underestimation and to stereotypical patterns of response to patient’s illness, especially in psychosomatic and other less clear diseases. Stress reactions are influenced by a patient’s personality, his/her temperament, childhood experiences, family situation, current status, and purpose in life. It is important to comprehend a patient’s life story in its individual biopsychosocial conditionality.

Key words:
psychosomatic medicine, healthy person and patient communication, illness and disease, life story, biopsychosocial approach.