Fear in the Patient with Undiagnosed Symptoms

Abstract

The effect of fear and anxiety on patients with undiagnosed symptoms is relatively unexplored in the medical literature. Fear can cause patients to react in various ways to the proposed plan of medical evaluation, including resistance or noncompliance. Many patients with undiagnosed symptoms are referred to nuclear medicine departments and technologists must competently perform the tests as well as provide emotional support to the patients. Patient support includes: providing information (patient education), encouraging patients to state their feelings and report symptoms to the physician, and providing a relevant distraction.