Dr. Vince Leone explains why clinicians must set clear outcome targets with patients upfront. Without explicit expectations, patients often assume they'll become completely pain-free, which is unrealistic. For neuropathy, he recommends aiming for 50% pain reduction as a pragmatic benchmark that can be life-changing.
Having a really clear outcome target and having a structured approach to pre-frame the patient of what success looks like. Because if you don't, if you don't do that and you say that you can help them, they typically think, well, I'm going to be pain-free. And I know in, you know, treating neuropathy, um, I a lot of times use the 50% because if they're 75 years old and their pain is an 8, it's like, hey, can I get— if I can get you to a 4, Is, is that a successful outcome in your mind? Because otherwise they're going to think, you know, well, I'm, I'm going to be pain-free. Well, maybe not, but going from an 8 to a 4 is potentially life-changing, right?
