Meghan Beier, PhD, is a health and rehabilitation psychologist specializing in multiple sclerosis (MS) at the Rowan Center for Behavioral Medicine. She shares how she approaches the various hesitations and challenges patients have when starting a new treatment.

I often really want to dig deeper into finding out what is behind the concern.

So is it a fear of side effects? For example, I’ve had several people say, “You know, I have a really strong history of cancer in my family, and I’m really worried about this medication that my neurologist recommended because I know there’s a higher risk for cancer. And so what does that mean for me?”

So, or is it the fear of immediate side effects like injection site reactions? Those kinds of things. So really understanding what fears there are.

Again, I think there’s sometimes an avoidance of MS or MS symptoms, avoidance of thinking about it, maybe feeling like, “My symptoms aren’t so bad. Do I really need this medication?” So I want to talk through somebody’s avoidance.

Or even if they’re feeling really good, why might it be important to start on a medication even if there are potential side effects or risks? I want to explore things like needle phobia and what route of administration really helps people versus what might be challenging. And I also really want to explore what their understanding is about MS and what the medications do.

Sometimes there is some hesitancy about starting treatment because people don’t really understand or they don’t see an immediate benefit. They don’t feel like the medications have improved their symptoms. And so there might be a lack of understanding of exactly what the medications are doing.

And finally, I often explore how much trust they have with their medical provider, their prescribing neurologist, or the physician that they’re working with. Because if the person doesn’t feel good or trusts that prescriber, they might not trust the medication that’s being recommended.

So all of those things are options that I explore when people have concerns about starting their treatments.