Patients’ Treatment Expectations Influence Health Outcomes

Why Patients’ Expectations Matter

Patients’ expectations in the context of medical treatment represent a growing area of research, with increasing evidence suggesting their impact on health outcomes across a wide range of physical and mental health conditions. For example, expectations have been associated with treatment course and outcomes in patients with heart disease, stroke, cancer, musculoskeletal disorders, injuries, and obesity. They have also been shown to predict outcomes in patients undergoing various types of surgery. Moreover, expectations are a key mechanism underlying the placebo and nocebo effects – a phenomena in which subjective and physiological changes occur due to inert or non-specific treatment components.

Positive expectations may lead to improved treatment outcomes, whereas negative expectations can result in reduced efficacy and an increase in adverse effects. Effectively managing patient expectations may therefore improve treatment success and reduce the need for additional interventions arising from dissatisfaction or side effects following the initial consultation.

Difficulties in Synthesising Current Evidence 

Despite a growing number of studies examining expectations across different medical conditions, integrating existing findings remains challenging. A major limitation identified in several systematic reviews and meta-analyses is the heterogeneity in how expectations are conceptualised and assessed. Read more. 

When we talk about artificial intelligence (AI) revolutionising healthcare, the conversation often centres on speed, efficiency, and innovation. But too often, it misses a crucial point: technology alone won’t fix the systemic inequalities already embedded in medicine. Without deliberate action, AI risks amplifying the very biases that have historically sidelined women’s health.

Women’s Health: A Concerning Context 

Women’s health has long been an afterthought in medical research and practice. The result? Conditions that disproportionately or uniquely affect women (like endometriosis or polycystic ovary syndrome) remain underexplored, underdiagnosed, and undertreated. On average, it takes seven years for a woman in France to receive an endometriosis diagnosis, a delay that compounds suffering and limits treatment options.

In its report Taking into account sex and gender to better treat: a public health issue (2020), the High Council for Equality between Women and Men warns about the impact of gender stereotypes in medical practice: persistent biases that can wrongly guide a diagnosis, delay it, or even prevent it, affecting both women and men.

Take the example of cardiovascular disease. It remains perceived as a “male” pathology in the collective imagination, typically associated with the image of a stressed, middle-aged man with a cigarette in hand. Thus, with identical symptoms, a woman complaining of chest tightness is three times more likely to be prescribed anxiolytics than a man, for whom the same clinical picture will more often trigger a referral to a cardiologist.

These inequalities do not only affect women. On the contrary, certain conditions are still perceived as “feminine”, such as depression or osteoporosis, and are consequently less often diagnosed in men. Read more.

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