Spotlight Research 1 - Effectively Communicating About Treatments with Your Patient: The Patient Perspective

Shared decision-making is increasingly recognized as a best practice in patient-centered care (though it is less commonly used in mental healthcare; Thomas et al., 2021). Shared decision-making encourages collaborative communication in which providers share their expertise in treatments, and patients discuss their goals and preferences for treatment. In order to be patient-centered, communication from providers should be understandable. Yet, often treatment names and concepts are conveyed in a way that is technical or jargony, thus decreasing patient understanding and openness to evidence-based psychotherapies (EBPs). The current talk will focus on two sets of studies designed to better understand patient-provider communication about treatment options.

The first set of studies entailed qualitative analysis of recorded treatment planning sessions within VA PTSD specialty care, and interviews with veteran patients (n = 10 providers, 25 treatment planning session recordings, 12 patient interviews). This analysis found several helpful themes for conveying information about EBPs, including rich description, engaging questions, sharing prior patient success stories, using inviting and direct language, and tailoring therapy discussion to meet patient needs. Analyses include (1) factors leading to choice of a non-EBP and (2) subtle differences in discussions that led to more favorable views of specific EBPs (Larsen, Hooyer, Kehle-Forbes, Hamblen, 2023).

The second set of studies used a survey to inform an updated PTSD treatment decision aid (n = 887 people who screened positive for PTSD; Larsen, Grubbs, Ranney, Matteo, Hamblen, in preparation). Quantitative and qualitative analyses evaluated patients’ preferences for treatments, their preference of terminology used to convey treatment information, and their (mis)understandings of treatment names. We describe common themes in participants’ reactions to treatment concepts such as “loss of diagnosis” and reactions to treatment names. We will describe the common misunderstandings that can ensue when clinicians use technical terms (e.g., “exposure”) that have different meanings to the general public than to scientists.