Seriously ill and hope

The doctor is often faced with the challenge of dealing with a terminally ill patient. Particularly difficult is the controversy of whether to give the patient false hope or whether it is better to come out with the truth and take the risk of emotional and psychological upset of the patient who is unable to accept the truth about his medical condition. There is certainly no one-size-fits-all solution that is universally applicable to every situation, as each patient is an individual personality.

However, to a certain extent, the subsequently cited study could help clarifying the attitude of a doctor that should be maintained towards a person suffering from a serious illness. This is a prospective study entitled "Hope, Truth and Preparation for Death", the creation of which involved 179 legal representatives (mostly family members) of terminally ill patients. In the interview, they were asked questions on topics such as: "Emotional and organizational preparation for the future", "Opinion on false hope", "The doctor's obligation to communicate the prognosis" or "The manner in which the prognosis should be communicated". Overall, 93% of representatives think that avoiding discussion of the prognosis is an unacceptable way to maintain hope. The main explanation was that discussing the prognosis is necessary to logistically and emotionally prepare family members for the patient's possible death. Other arguments were that an accurate understanding of the patient's prognosisit allows for better support for the patient and other family members, a moral aversion to the idea of ​​false hope, and a feeling that the physician has an obligation to discuss the prognosis. Only 7% believe that the doctor should keep information about the prognosis to himself, because of the idea that discussing death could emotionally damage the family or negatively affect the patient's health. Detailed conclusions from these interviews are summarized in the table.