Utilizing Patient Hope and Outcome Expectations to Facilitate Treatment Gains

Research indicates that patients’ hope and positive outcome expectations are associated with favorable treatment outcomes. The importance of hope and expectations are discussed in relation to psychotherapy in addition to broader healthcare settings such as pain management and surgery. Five suggestions for promoting hope and positive outcome expectations for patients are provided including presenting a convincing treatment rational, sharing successful case examples and the belief that treatment will work, increasing the patient’s faith in the health care provider, making sure patients’ expectations are not overly optimistic, and allowing patients to have input into treatment decision-making.

Keywords: patient; expectations; hope; patient