The next time you see your doctor, you may want to be as upfront as possible about the way you feel. 

When brain cancer patient David Anderson tells his doctor how he's doing, he tries to be as open and candid as he can be. 

"I think it makes everybody's job a little easier and I think certainly the outcome is probably better," says Anderson.

He may be right. Researchers at Oregon Health and Science University studied what happens when doctors and patients aren't on the same page. 
 
"A physician might have rated a patient's performance status, which is a medical term for well-being, higher than the patient rated their own performance status," says Dr. Tomasz Beer, M.D., a medical oncologist.

They found that if the doctor thinks the patient's doing better than he really is, it can affect treatment. 
 
"The medical decisions which are driven by a solid understanding of the patient's condition may not be optimal when the physician doesn't fully recognize the patient’s accurate sense of well-being." 

In fact, among cancer patients, this so-called disagreement was linked to an increased risk of death.
 
"Patients who are depressed, patients who are no longer able to work and patients with less than a high school education were the three groups where the risk of disagreement was the highest." 

The reason is unclear. Maybe patients don't want to complain or they think the doctor can't help them anyway. 
 
In a follow-up study, patients will carry a tablet computer so they can record their overall well-being and side effects from chemotherapy in real time.
 
AUDIENCE INQUIRY:
For tips on talking to your health care provider:
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, http://www.ahrq.gov/consumer/quicktips/doctalk.htm
National Institute on Aging, http://www.nia.nih.gov/HealthInformation/Publications/TalkingWithYourDoctor
 

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