In twelve years of hospital experience in oncology, Isabelle Guillemot has met many patients tempted by the use of alternative medicine.
Now a liberal psychologist in Bourg-la-Reine (Hauts-de-Seine), she deciphers this phenomenon for us.
To read also Miguel B., the naturopath who claims to cure cancer, would have made at least two other victims
What drives patients to these alternative medicines?
ISABELLE GUILLEMOT.
There are two types of patients.
Those who turn their backs on traditional medicine because the treatments scare them too much.
And those who want to fight against side effects, especially chemotherapy, but who do not tell their oncologist.
Isabelle Guillemot, clinical psychologist, specialist in oncology.
DR
What are the risks of patients who turn to naturopathy?
If they use it in parallel with cancer treatments, the risk is the interaction.
Certain plants, for example, reduce the therapeutic effects of chemo on cancer.
Fasting weakens the body, which results in an increase in the side effects of chemo, and therefore a less well tolerated treatment.
Those who only turn to a naturopath run the risk of seeing the disease proliferate quickly.
Even when they do come back to us, it is too late.
I have lost patients this way before, when their cancer was perfectly curable.
How to prevent abuses?
We must already work on the announcement of cancer. It always causes a state of bewilderment, a worry about death. The patient must be prepared by advising him of the results of these examinations as they arise, but also taking the time to discuss the treatments they are going to receive. We are always more psychically vulnerable after the announcement of cancer. When the announcement is scary, we look for alternatives with people with less frightening speech. It is then necessary to seize the supportive care offered to the hospital, whether it is the psychologist, the registered nurse, the dietitian ... And if you really want to consult a plant specialist in addition to your oncologist, you have to talk to the medical team, show your prescriptions to check for incompatibilities with chemo, for example.
What are the remedies for the patient or his relatives?
The patient must absolutely change the place of treatment if the announcement was too brutal, if he is uncomfortable with his oncologist.
It is part of the patient's rights.
When one of your relatives seems to you to be under the influence of a manipulator, the familiarity and the high cost of the parallel treatments offered are worrying signs.
It can affect absolutely everyone, precisely because of the state of bewilderment caused by the announcement of cancer.
You can then call on the patient's doctor.
It is often for him a person of confidence and he is kept informed of all the care offered by oncologists.
If you have been designated by the patient as
a trusted person, you can also contact the oncologist and have access to the patient's file.
