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Diagnostic communication in the memory clinic CA Peel 2015.pdf (363.49 kB)

Diagnostic communication in the memory clinic: a conversation analytic perspective

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journal contribution
posted on 2016-04-21, 12:44 authored by Elizabeth PeelElizabeth Peel
Objectives: Whether and how patients should be told their dementia diagnosis, has been an area of much debate. While there is now recognition that early diagnosis is important for dementia care little research has looked at how dementiarelated diagnostic information is actually verbally communicated. The limited previous research suggests that the absence of explicit terminology (e.g., use of the term Alzheimer’s) is problematic. This paper interrogates this assumption through a conversation analysis of British naturalistic memory clinic interaction. Method: This paper is based on video-recordings of communication within a UK memory clinic. Appointments with 29 patients and accompanying persons were recorded, and the corpus was repeatedly listened to, in conjunction with the transcripts in order to identify the segments of talk where there was an action hearable as diagnostic delivery, that is where the clinician is evaluating the patient’s condition. Results: Using a conversation analytic approach this analysis suggests that diagnostic communication, which is sensitive and responsive to the patient and their carers, is not predicated on the presence or absence of particular lexical choices. There is inherent complexity regarding dementia diagnosis, especially in the ‘early stages’, which is produced through and reflected in diagnostic talk in clinical encounters. Conclusion: In the context of continuity of dementia care, diagnostic information is communicated in a way that conforms to intersubjective norms of minimizing catastrophic reactions in medical communication, and is sensitive to problems associated with ‘insight’ in terms of delivery and receipt or non-receipt of diagnosis.

Funding

This research was supported by a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship [MC110142].

History

School

  • Social Sciences

Department

  • Communication, Media, Social and Policy Studies

Published in

AGING & MENTAL HEALTH

Volume

19

Issue

12

Pages

1123 - 1130 (8)

Citation

PEEL, E., 2015. Diagnostic communication in the memory clinic: a conversation analytic perspective. Aging & Mental Health, 19(12), pp. 1123-1130.

Publisher

© The Author. Published by Taylor and Francis

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2015

Notes

This is an Open Access Article. It is published by Taylor and Francis under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

ISSN

1360-7863

Language

  • en