Five years of heartsink patients in general practice.
"Heartsink" patients exasperate, defeat, and overwhelm their doctors by their behaviour. A group of such patients was followed up over five years in a general practice, and this paper describes what happened to them. As a group they were often in employment and in stable relationships, though women were over represented. Half the group were subjected to a management plan which seemed to make them less heartsink over the five year period. While heartsink patients often have serious medical problems, they are a disparate group of individuals whose only common thread seems to be the distress they cause their doctor and the practice. Heartsink as a phenomenon has features that are unique to general practice.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009819:Office Visits / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D010347:Patient Care Planning; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000523:psychology; D014852:Wales