Health ministry of republic of moldova the university of medicine and pharmacy nicolae testemiţanu

 
Lecture IX 
 
 
 
THE PATIENT PERSONALITY 
 
Structure: 
1.
Patient characteristics and behaviours. 
2.
The patients’ expectations from their doctors. 
3.
A “good” patient. 
4.
Difficult patients. 
5.
Therapeutic compliance. 
 
Key terms:
the patient sick role; the patients’ expectations; patient 
complaints;
 
a “good” patient;
 
therapeutic compliance; therapeutic non-
compliance;
 
difficult patients. 
 
1.
 
Patient characteristics and behaviours 
Generally, 
the patient possesses a difficult psychological state,
mar-
ked by any essential peculiarities as: 
1.
The marginal situation (state) between the health and disease, 
which make the patient very sensitive, unstable and conflicted. 
2.
The situation of a sick person is seen as alarming and makes the 
patient adopt any strategy for protection and adaptation to the new social 
role. 
3.
The narrowing of an activity sphere. 
4.
Egocentrism (the personal problems become more important 
than others). 
5.
The anxiety increases if the disease becomes chronic.
6.
Reducing responsibilities (professional, social, familiar). 
The sick role of a patient
is a temporary social role that has been 
instituted by society with the aim of returning sick people to a state of 
health and restoring them to fully functioning members of society as 
quickly as possible. The sick role is also regarded as a universal role, in 
that its obligations and expectations apply to all sick people, whatever 
their age, gender, ethnicity, occupation or status in other spheres.