American Association for Physician Leadership

Self-Management

Treatment-related Medical PTSD and “Difficult Patients” with Brenda Denzler Podcast

Michael J. Sacopulos, JD | Brenda Denzler, PhD

July 26, 2023


Summary:

Mike Sacopulos and Brenda Denzler discuss how patients with post-traumatic stress disorder, caused by past medical treatments, choose to call themselves “treatment-traumatized” patients although healthcare professionals may categorize these patients as, “difficult.”





Brenda Denzler, PhD, is an author and editor. Her career as an editor and writer was cut short after her diagnosis with inflammatory breast cancer in 2009, at which time she was also diagnosed with treatment-related medical PTSD springing from medical encounters she had experienced at the age of five. After a difficult and re-traumatizing (but successful) course of cancer treatment, she began writing short pieces focused on cancer and, increasingly, on mPTSD that were published in local venues, on the Cure Today website, on MedPage Today, and in the British Medical Journal. The Facebook support group that Brenda Denzler moderates for treatment-related medical PTSD now has 1000 members.

In Brenda Denzler’s discussion with Mike Sacopulos, she describes how patients with post-traumatic stress disorder, caused by past medical treatments, choose to call themselves “treatment-traumatized” patients although healthcare professionals may categorize these patients as, “difficult.”

The American Association for Physician Leadership takes the opportunity to share Brenda’s story with the SoundPractice audience of physicians and inter-professional healthcare providers.

A complete list of her health-related work can be found at: https://muckrack.com/brenda-denzler

Learn more about the American Association for Physician Leadership at www.physicianleaders.org

Listen to this episode of SoundPractice.

Michael J. Sacopulos, JD

Founder and President, Medical Risk Institute; General Counsel for Medical Justice Services; and host of “SoundPractice,” a podcast that delivers practical information and fresh perspectives for physician leaders and those running healthcare systems; Terre Haute, Indiana; email: msacopulos@physicianleaders.org ; website: www.medriskinstitute.com


Brenda Denzler, PhD

Brenda Denzler, PhD, is an author and editor in Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She is the author of For My Own Good: Medical PTSD and Me as well as numerous articles and essays on medical PTSD and on cancer.

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The American Association for Physician Leadership (AAPL) changed its name from the American College of Physician Executives (ACPE) in 2014. We may have changed our name, but we are the same organization that has been serving physician leaders since 1975.

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