SUMMARY

The ophthalmological patient may exhibit symptoms of anxiety towards his illness and, as a consequence, to develop psychic defense mechanisms, whose objective is to attenuate that anxiety.

The objectives of the present study were: to investigate how an ophthalmologist perceives the aspects described above; how he attempts to deal with them and the professional's eventual difficulties in the doctor-patient relationship.

Through the use of a questionnaire, personally applied to 45 ophthalmologists, the authors observed that:

a - The emotional difficulties most frequently cited by the ophthalmologists were: 1) that associated with surgical procedures; 2) that associated with economical problems; 3) emotional difficulties as primary complaints or manifestations; 4) that associated with hospitalization.

b - Ophthalmologists, when confronted with a patient with emotional difficulties tend to refer him to a psichiatrist or psychologist after an attempt to solve the emotional difficulty and provide clarification or guidance to the patient or to his relatives with respect to the patient's difficulties.

c - In the patient-doctor relationship, the attitudes towards patients describedas “multiple complainers”, resisting treatment or having poor prognosis need educational measure that might modify them or permit the doctor to them so that they will not harm the patients.