The intersection space of words: the doctor-patient relationship

Abstract

The Brazilian Journal of Family and Community Medicine (RBMFC) in this special issue, Volume 10, Number 35, addresses the subject of Quaternary Prevention (P4), which became part of the Bireme descriptors (DeCS) on 06/04/2015, thanks to the initiative of RBMFC.2,3 Thus, new words begin to take shape and strength as a counter-hegemonic discourse within the medicine through the ‘moral and intellectual’4 leadership of researchers and practical doctors. The cover illustration entitled ‘Words of Prevention’ refers to the importance of certain terms in prevention, as well as to the various topics discussed in this issue. It is through language and the use of words that practice of family medicine is underpinned, based on the doctor-patient relationship. As this constitutes one of the cores of the specialty, words can be a potentiator of quaternary prevention activities. The words can often be iatrogenic when labelling or turning potential risk factors into ‘diseases’, and thus generating doubts and fears in patients by producing pseudo-diseases. But it is also through words that patients can be reassured, resulting in positive therapeutic effects. So, word as one of the pillars of communication needs to be properly worked to facilitate understanding between health professionals and patients during the exchange of information. It is from the doctor-patient relationship, as an everyday intersection space of words, that quaternary prevention is built.