I see this from yet another point of view. Sharon, I am sorry for your loss, and thank you for bringing to light that most important and moving perspective. Of hope and expectation that helps them get good care and living as fully as possible. (3) allow patients the freedom to find a balance (1) help patients know what to expect and find healing ways of dealing with this knowledge My hope helped me find the fortitude to proceed with the trial. They need to turn their attention elsewhere. I expected to die before my three children graduated elementary school, because I knew the statistics.Īt the same time, I had hope I’d be the exception and get to raise them to adulthood.Īnd I had hope that my participation would help researchers learn something about treating patients with my type of lymphoma, even if that “something” was that the treatment didn’t work and Patients can expect one thing while hoping for another. HOPE has to do with what patients believe is possible, while EXPECTATION has to do with what patients believe is likely. Hope and optimism are two different things. I am an internist and 20-yr survivor of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, in no small part because I participated in the Phase I trial of Rituxan (and two other trials). To learn more, read the full column, “When Optimism Is Unrealistic,” and then please join the discussion below. Saying their chances are better than average of avoiding some harm or obtaining some benefit, they are being unrealistically optimistic because you can’t say that most people are above average.” “If you have more than 50 percent of patients Sulmasy, senior author and a professor of medicine and ethics at the University of Chicago. “It’s the Lake Wobegon effect, ” said Dr. In essence, they believed they would fare better than the average patient enrolled in the same trial. A majority of patients assumed that the experimental drugs would control their cancer and that they would experience benefits but not complications. ![]() To applying that knowledge to their own particular situations. Pauline Chen in the latest Doctor and Patient column.ĭespite clearly understanding the purpose, and limits, of early-phase trials, the patients were also blinded by what researchers called an “unrealistic optimism,” or an optimistic bias, when it came Sometimes even well-informed patients have blinders on about the potential of a treatment or clinical trial, writes Dr.
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