COMMUNICATING WITH THE PSYCHOLOGICALLY DISTRESSED PATIENT

Introduction: Psychological distress is common and missed in half of the patients at the primary care level. Compliance to medical treatment in such patients is improved if proper communication takes place. Methods: An audiovisual package on communicating with the psychologically distressed patient (PDP) was developed in 2015 by the department of Family Medicine at the American University of Beirut Medical Center. The material included 3 scenarios. The first scenario depicts a physician adopting a biomedical approach in dealing with an elderly patient with weight loss. The second scenario deals with a university student who failed two major courses due to mixed anxiety and depression. The last scenario deals with an adjustment disorder. Students who attended this session rated the workshop using a Likert scale in addition to commenting on the value of this tool and what they liked most and least. Results: Students highly rated this activity with the majority reporting to have learned more than 3 new concepts relating to dealing with a PDP. Conclusions: The developed package is unique and is of help to medical students. Future research is needed to examine the value of this audio-visual package on students' skills while examining PDP.