Psychosocial aspects of cancer in adults: implications for teaching medical students

This article addresses psychosocial aspects of cancer and the cancer patient that the authors feel are important to teach medical students. A section on understanding the cancer patient deals with patient psychosocial responses to a diagnosis of cancer. Loss of control, anger and guilt, fear of abandonment, fear of pain, psychiatric disorders, and psychosocial factors all need to be explored by the health care team. Interventions, such as education, support groups, environmental manipulation, or psychological counseling including imagery or relaxation have proved to be effective. Relaxation therapy can also help to counteract the side effects of chemotherapy such as anticipatory nausea and vomiting. An increasing openness about discussing dying and the development of hospices have resulted in improvements of the care of the dying patient and family. Family members should be involved in the care of the cancer patient and can support the patient by promoting autonomy and control and by encouraging communication and expression of feelings. The doctor-patient relationship is central, and is changing from a paternalistic model to one encouraging greater patient participation. In studying the behavior of physicians at Albany Medical College, the authors found that oncologists spend more time with patients with the poorest prognoses. Patient satisfaction with the relationship was found to be high. Students can be instructed in these psychosocial aspects of oncology by means of videotapes, role-playing, or patient presentations, and more importantly by using the physicians as a role model. Comprehensive care of the cancer patient necessitates the integration of psychosocial aspects of care into the overall assessment and management plan. This article reviews the psychosocial aspects of care of the adult cancer patient taught to second year medical students as part of a 42 hour course entitled "The Cellular Basis of Cancer Medicine" at Albany Medical College. The didactic material covered in this article is based on local clinical work and research endeavors with adult cancer patients and is included in the course syllabus given to the students. The students are divided into four small groups, each of which has one of four teaching experiences, each lasting for 2 hours. The psychosocial aspects of cancer is one of the small groups. This group, consisting of 32 students each, is taught by a medical oncologist and a behavioral scientist. Videotapes of interviews done with patients and/or live interviews with patients are used to highlight the material covered in the syllabus.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)