Gestures that alert that the patient hides information from his doctor

Pinching the nose with the thumb and index finger, tucking the lips in or leaning back in the chair to escape are some of the alert gestures that emergency physicians observe in patients when they hide information about their pathology or condition. general physical or mental health.

Knowing how to interpret the body language and non-conscious gestures of a patient is key for health personnel, who can thus prevent an attack, detect an addiction or save a person with suicidal ideation, since 20% of those who who take their lives have gone to the doctor's office that same day and 50%, during that week.

At the 33rd national congress that the Spanish Society of Emergency and Emergency Medicine (SEMES) celebrates in Madrid from June 7 to 9, the civil guard and member of the SEMES Mental Health working group Juan Manuel García will give an account of these techniques in the paper Body language and the importance of the unconscious in the emergency room: techniques to detect when a patient lies or hides information about his accident.

García, who admits that his interest in the subject comes from the police field, although it is applicable to healthcare and many others, stresses that the technique does not allow us to know if the patient is lying or not, but it does allow us to know if something is keeping quiet or hiding information, clarifies in an interview with Efe.

Sometimes, more than a lie, there is an exaggeration. It is about, he says, those patients who, upon arrival at the hospital emergency room, swell the symptoms to be treated with priority.

Medical or anxiolytic leave

The patient's motivation to hide information can be very varied.. Sometimes it is done to get a prescription for a medication, it is frequent in the case of anxiolytics such as benzodiazepines or drugs such as Trankimazin. In fact, Spain is the leader in the consumption of anxiolytics.

Another motivation to hide or exaggerate symptoms from the doctor is to justify a sick leave. García comments that there are patients who confess, for example, that they cannot raise an arm while unconsciously generating gestures that are incompatible with the pathology they are recounting.

Knowing these techniques also helps the doctor in the event of a possible aggression, and especially makes it possible to recognize warning signs when a patient does not appear to be violent and yet is about to attack.

The attacks on doctors, both physical and verbal, broke a historical record in 2022, 38% more than a year earlier, according to complaints collected by professional associations.

García considers that recognizing these alarm signals “a few seconds before” gives the doctor reaction time. Generally, the aggressor tends to occupy more space, raises his chin, sticks out his chest, separates his arms from the body and opens his legs, in what is called body expansion.

Flicker

This civil guard and body language expert at SEMES regrets that these techniques are not widely known, despite the fact that for a few years he has been training emergency health professionals throughout Spain.

He explains that each emotional profile requires a technique and it is very important to know how to listen, although he admits that very little time is available in consultations and sometimes there is not even eye contact between patient and doctor.

A very simple technique is “active listening and generating emotional blinks”. This, he says, is showing the patient that his story matters, nodding his head and blinking slowly and softly, just at the moment when he tells something important.

This technique allows the non-conscious part of the brain to interpret that the doctor cares about you, and that causes the patient to open up and connect, something very important, he warns, in the detection of suicidal ideation, which could be better prevented that way.