Asking patients to write letters illuminates new aspects of the physician-patient-family relationship
In 2019, we (authors SM, LC) initiated a research study on the experience of care partners of people with Parkinson’s disease psychosis (PDP). Among other activities, participants wrote a letter to their care recipient’s doctor to the prompt: “Understanding that you know the most about this person, specifically their PD psychosis because you likely spend the most time with them (certainly more time than the doctor gets to spend with them), what details would you share?” Here, we present one letter, written by author LAD, followed by a short response by author SM, a specialist in movement disorders and narrative medicine.