Set expectations early and then keep them: that is how a patient learns that you and the treatment are trustworthy. It covers what a medication will and will not do, how long visits run, and what text and email are for.
Why it matters
Setting and keeping expectations is how you show that you and the treatment are trustworthy. A lot of anyone's anxiety is just feeling untethered and not knowing what to expect.
“a lot of anxiety for anyone is just being untethered, not knowing what to expect. Right. So if you can set and keep expectations, that is how you show that you and the treatment are trustworthy”
46:04PTSD Medications: Integrating Pharmacotherapy, Therapy, and the Treatment Frame | Episode 22Apr 2025 The expectation you set decides how the patient reads the visit. If they expect an hour and you cut them off at 30 minutes, they will feel shortchanged.
“Whatever you set the expectation is, will determine how the patient interprets. If you set an expectation that you're supposed to meet for an hour and then you cut them off at 30 minutes, they're going to be like, what the heck”
8:53Tips to Avoid Burnout in Psychiatry (Outpatient, mostly)Mar 2026
Medications
The most important thing is to tell patients what to actually expect from a medication, adverse effects included. Say it plainly: this medication is not going to make you happy, and it is not going to solve all your problems.
“the most important one is to tell them what to actually expect from the medications. You mentioned some of that, right? It can be about adverse effects. This medication is not going to make you feel happy. This medication is not going to solve all your problems”
46:40PTSD Medications: Integrating Pharmacotherapy, Therapy, and the Treatment Frame | Episode 22Apr 2025
Visits and messages
If you are constantly running over, set the frame at the intake: the intake is an hour, follow-ups are 20 minutes.
“if, you know, you find that you're constantly going over, set early expectations with your patients and the intake say, you know, my intake is an hour, my follow-ups are 20 minutes”
13:06Tips to Avoid Burnout in Psychiatry (Outpatient, mostly)Mar 2026 Establish early that text and email are for rescheduling, not clinical care, and that you are not a friendly emailer.
“I set expectations very early that the use of text and email is not for clinical purposes. It's for rescheduling. I also established super early on that I am not a friendly emailer”
18:28Tips to Avoid Burnout in Psychiatry (Outpatient, mostly)Mar 2026
From these episodes
- Tips to Avoid Burnout in Psychiatry (Outpatient, mostly)Mar 2026 · 3 points
- PTSD Medications: Integrating Pharmacotherapy, Therapy, and the Treatment Frame | Episode 22Apr 2025 · 2 points
Every point above is something said on the Psychofarm podcast, with the words as spoken and a link to the moment in the episode. It is education, not medical advice, and an episode reflects what we thought when we recorded it.