This adds credibility to patients' experiences, puts the experiences in a rational framework and increases confidence in the physician. Patients want to know that we not only understand our treatments, but also their potential complications-that the treatment is not out of control. The choice of medication for our patients should be influenced by the potential side effects each medication produces and how those side effects interact with patients' medical or psychiatric symptoms. Our appropriate selection of medications will increase patients' adherence by minimizing their experiences of feeling worse than they did before. Explain the time course of the medication's side effects .
Side effects can have immediate or delayed onset, be transient, long-lasting or irreversible.
In the second vignette, Smith gave the side effect a time frame of two weeks, making the experience finite. Again, the treatment is not out of control. Outline treatment alternatives . In the first vignette, Jones offered no options beyond going back on the same medication at the same dose. A lack of options often generates anxiety in a patient.