People may experience poor communication in their daily lives due to misunderstandings, including communication between doctors and patients. Recent research has found that when doctors reassure patients by saying “this is normal,” they may interpret it as not needing treatment, thereby reducing their willingness to seek treatment. However, this misunderstanding can be avoided.
The University of California San Diego in the United States pointed out that Seyi Lawal, a doctoral student at the School of Management, initiated this research with colleagues based on concerns about communication issues related to menopause.
Lawal noted that menopausal patients sometimes react by ignoring symptoms when told that these troubling symptoms are just normal signs of aging. She couldn’t help but wonder if there is a difference in understanding between doctors and patients in the same conversation.
To investigate this issue, researchers conducted 14 experiments involving the general public and healthcare professionals. These experiments involved 9,371 participants and various health issues, including menopausal symptoms, migraines, toothaches, seasonal allergies, and elevated blood sugar levels.
In these experiments, participants read information simulating real medical scenarios where healthcare professionals described symptoms differently – some referred to them as “normal” phenomena, while others did not. Subsequently, researchers evaluated the participants’ willingness to seek treatment and compared it with the healthcare professionals’ expectations.
Lawal stated that healthcare professionals initially expected that describing a patient’s symptoms as “normal” would increase their likelihood of accepting treatment, or at least not have a negative impact, but their actual response was the opposite.
To doctors, the term “normal” often implies “common” and “widely known”. However, patients often interpret it as “acceptable” or “not requiring treatment”.
This situation is known as “Medical Gaslighting”. Even though doctors intend to provide assistance, there may still be a communication barrier between doctors and patients, leading to such a situation.
Fortunately, communication misunderstandings can be avoided. Researchers tested two simple methods to reduce such misunderstandings – combining the statement of “normal” with clear treatment recommendations, and explaining that this “normal” refers to statistical normalcy, rather than meeting a standard.
The lead author of this study, On Amir, said, “Doctors typically have good intentions. They want to alleviate the patient’s anxiety, but the results often backfire. Doctors should not stop reassuring patients, but they should ensure that their message is clear and accurate.”
Researchers mentioned that the same principle applies to patients. Hearing a doctor say that a certain symptom is “normal” does not mean that the severity of the symptom is low.
If a patient is unsure about what the doctor means by calling a symptom “normal,” do not automatically assume it means no treatment is needed. It is important to ask for clarification.
The findings of this study were published on August 10th in the journal “Nature Human Behaviour”.