Question

During a visit to her family physician, a 35-year-old woman discloses that she suffers from anorexia nervosa. She complains of fatigue, dizziness, depression headaches, irregular menses, and environmental allergies. Each day, she uses 15 to 60 laxatives, exercises for several hours, and eats a salad or half a sandwich. At 52, she weighs 88 pounds. She demonstrates a good understanding of the diagnosis and the recommended therapy for anorexia. Despite receiving a varlety of resource information, the patient refuses any medical intervention. She continues to present to the family physician, offering a variety of somatic complaints. This patient's refusal of treatment is based on Select one: O a. competent refusal, 6, refusal on grounds of unusual belief. Ocenigmatic refusal O d. an act of omission

Answer 1

The patient here has anorexia nervosa. She is continuously visiting the doctor but not taking the treatment. She has not given any reasons on why she is refusing the treatment. Such a refusal to take treatment by patient is known as enigmatic refusal.

Enigmatic refusal is the treatment refusal by patient without known reasons. This could be due to patient’s fears, beliefs, values or mental status.

So the answer is (c) enigmatic refusal.