Initial Patient Interview

Abstract

Patients may be referred to a behavioral medicine practitioner for a variety of reasons. Generally, the bulk of these referrals come from physicians with patients who present chronic physical complaints in the absence, on repeated investigations, of physical findings. Alternatively, they are patients whose somatic complaints have been unresponsive to multiple, conventional chemical and/or surgical interventions. Often the referrals are poorly made. Without rapid and effective patient reorientation by the behavioral medicine practitioner, these patients are unlikely to make or keep an appointment, or if they come in, to return after the first visit.