‘Heartsink’ patients in general practice: a defining paper, its impact, and psychodynamic potential

摘要

In his 1988 paper ‘Five years of heartsink patients in general practice’,1 Tom O'Dowd is said to have coined the term ‘heartsink’. In that paper O'Dowd refers to a publication in which the term ‘heartsink’ had been employed 2 years previously, but in which the author, CG Ellis, preferred ‘dysphoria’ to describe: