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Patient interview
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Usually the examination of the patient begins with a question. There are many examples where the diagnosis is practically established when studying only an anamnesis. In any case, from the very beginning of the questioning, the doctor appears on the grounds of a possible disease or clinical syndrome, and more often the questioning and further examination continues already purposefully, taking the form of a conversation, an interview.
The questioning concerns not only the immediate feelings of the patient at the present time, but also those suffered in the past. It should be from the outset to assess the personality of the patient and his ability to fully adequately answer the questions posed. Not every patient can accurately describe the details of his feelings, recall what happened in the past, the sequence of events, their relationship. Therefore, it is often necessary to return to questioning during further monitoring and communication with the patient, especially in connection with the results of the survey.
The questioning as one of the important diagnostic methods was elevated to the rank of the basic diagnostic method by GA Zakharin, one of the outstanding domestic clinicians. In this respect, GA Zakharin's priority is recognized abroad as well. It is known that a major French clinician Henri Yushar came to Russia, at the clinic of GA Zakharin, specifically to study the method of questioning. Subsequently, in the preface to the French translation of lectures by GA Zakharin, he writes: "The glory of this method and its wide use were due not only to its simplicity and logic, to the patient's sparing, but also to the great practicality and property of this method to reveal initial changes in functional diagnostics."
It is GA Zakharin who insists on the importance of clarifying the etiology of the disease, careful study of the patient's environment, which is largely specified by the details of the questioning of the patient and his relatives. Professional factors, lifestyle characteristics, habits (for example, addiction to tea or coffee), the degree of physical activity was included in the compulsory list of circumstances determined by the doctor, important for understanding the essence of the disease in a particular patient.
Acquaintance with the patient begins with the specification of his so-called personal data: surname, name and patronymic, age, profession, place of work. Ethnicity is also desirable to clarify, because some diseases are more common in people of certain nationalities.
The questionnaire consists consistently of the following parts:
- complaints;
- anamnesis of a patient's life, including data on heredity (family history) and anamnesis of the disease.
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