Patients’ most common mistakes and expectations in treatment
When it comes to misconceptions, it very often depends on patients’ expectations. What are they? Many patients who come to us with chronic conditions expect us to treat and cure them in a month, or in five days.
That isn’t possible. It comes down to what patients expect. There was, for example, a woman who had had a condition for 17 years, and it was a common one.
Treating it took time. We treated her over a long period, gave courses of treatment, and she recovered completely. That is, this patient listened to the advice and trusted us, and this was the result.
And when patients like this come to us, come to me, they expect me to help them within a short time. In such cases patients need patience. Without patience, the treatment will have no effect either.
As I said, acute diseases and acute syndromes can be treated in a short time. But chronic diseases can sometimes require several courses. Urinary incontinence, for example, also occurs in children.
We treat it with one course and it goes away, or several courses may be needed — even an extensive course of treatment. That’s why parents are very important here too: their thinking, their approach. And if they trust the doctor and know the doctor’s experience — today it’s a digital world, so of course they ask around, and they can even gather information on the internet.
If they gather information about the doctor and the doctor’s experience and trust that doctor, they should continue the treatment patiently, trusting that doctor. Then it is possible to get to the end of that disease, of those complaints. Unfortunately, I have to note here that many patients — many patients, and this really is how it is —
When they come to me, I examine them, and if I see that the treatment comes down to just one medication and I prescribe that medication, the patient says, “But we’re used to having four or five medications.” That is, they no longer trust that one medication. Yet that one medication truly forms the basis of the treatment.
However, many patients are prescribed the wrong treatments by doctors. Five, six, ten medications are prescribed, and they may have no effect.
The experiences described in this interview are not typical results: treatment outcomes differ from patient to patient and cannot be guaranteed in advance. Chronic diseases can take a long time to treat and require regular medical follow-up.
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