Interpersonal Relationship Issues in Psychopharmacology

Communication is the essential component for good clinical practice within a patient-centered approach, with guidelines empathizing the role of communication and the mandatory need to train physicians in communication in order to assure optimal psychosocial care of cancer patients, including the psychosocial interview patient assessment, prescription, and follow-up. The aim of this chapter is to briefly summarize some principles of communication when dealing with cancer patients with psychiatric disorders in order to facilitate assessment and promote adherence to treatment and to suggest guidelines which the clinician may use to achieve these goals. For these reasons, the protocol SPIKES-Rx has been specifically developed to guide doctors in the appropriate interactions to promote patient agreement with recommendations for psychopharmacological management when psychotropic drugs are prescribed.