Doctor-Patient Relationship

Have you ever lied to your patients or been surprised to learn that one of your patients lied to you? Have you considered it important to learn why lies emerge in the treatment relationship? Have you wondered whether (or how) you should confront such untruths? If you have, then the following discussion should provide the forum for answers to these and other questions related to the exploration, detection, and management of lies in the medical arena.

Clinicians realize that making an accurate diagnosis relies on the provision of reliable information by patients and their family members and that timely, astute, and compassionate care depends on effective bidirectional communications (between the patient and the physician). Unfortunately, both patients and physicians are often challenged by complicated communications; each group withholds, distorts, obfuscates, fabricates, or lies about information that is crucial to the doctor-patient relationship and to effective treatment....