Abstract
This series of linked presentations will outline key psychological processes that inform our understanding of how women make decisions about treatment for their menopausal symptoms and identify areas where clinicians can intervene to enhance menopause management, treatment decision-making and improve the quality-of-life of their patients.
The first presentation focuses on those psychological processes influencing treatment decision-making around the menopause, especially how individuals process risk information, the effect of anxiety on information processing and examining how women prioritize symptoms and treatment choices. Understanding women's ideas, concerns and expectations about the menopause is key to working in partnership with patients to arrive at an agreed management approach and improve treatment adherence.
Promoting lifestyle change in women with menopausal symptoms
There is a widespread ‘common-sense’ belief among health-care practitioners that knowledge of the benefits of lifestyle change are sufficient to change behaviour. This has led to the development of numerous ‘educational’ interventions, which are often little more than information giving. However, information on its own is unlikely to lead to lifestyle changes. The subsequent presentations will pull together research evidence that identifies how beliefs about symptoms and risk interact with mood states to influence patients' responses to health-promotion messages. Brief, practical techniques derived from this evidence and adaptable for use in primary and secondary care settings will be presented.