There are a series of articles in the current May 2012 issue of the American Journal of Bioethics which offers perhaps a redefinition of the expression often used in medical practice "the difficult patient". In addition, the discussion also involves how to handle such characterized patients including mediation of the doctor-patient relationship, perhaps formally with the utilization of a clinical ethicist. The journal articles were all written by thoughtful professional ethics scholars and although they all, most likely have been or will be patients, I wanted, with this thread, to read how my visitors as patients and "scholars" in other ways, would define or redefine the "difficult patient" in you own terms and then tell us whether you think you are one! ..Maurice.
Graphic: "Difficult Patient" retrieved from
Google Images.
