Informing cancer patient in relation to his type of personality: the emotional-hyperthymic (dramatizing) patient

Informing a cancer patient has been an issue of particular interest to the scientific community over the last 50 years. Since 1989 we have been studying the characters or personality types based on the Kahana and Bibring's approach as part of Consultation-Liaison (C-L) Psychiatry. The question posed was how these characters or personality types could be useful in the process of informing the cancer patient. The aim of this paper was to describe the emotional-hyperthymic character or type of personality thoroughly, so that any physician can make a diagnosis and tailor the information strategy to the patient's needs. The qualitative method of research through groups with doctors and nurses was used, while the research within groups lasted for 5 years. The degree of patients' denial varied between "large" and "very large" and sometimes was "medium". Initially, the degree of information was "minimal", then "small" until it reached "medium". A discordance was evident between what the patient showed and what the family reported about him. The patient presented himself as courageous and extrovert, but the relatives considered him as faint-hearted.