Breaking bad news: How to cope

Abstract

Physicians often are uncomfortable when communicating an unfavorable outcome: they feel inadequate in the face of uncontrollable disease and unprepared to manage the emotional reactions of patients. For lack of proper training, they often adopt inappropriate ways to disclose unfavorable information. We will outline some key points about the issue of disclosing bad news and aim to provide useful tools to physicians who have to cope frequently with breaking bad news to patients, providing examples and clinical sceneries specific to gastroenterology and hepatology practice.