Heart failure patients overestimate their life expectancy

HealthDay/Washington Post, June 4, 2008

Many patients with the worst type of heart disease think they will live longer than their doctors tell them they will, according to Duke University researchers. Cardiologists at Duke began telling people being treated for heart failure that the condition would shorten their lives. The doctors weren't believed and instead, many patients preferred to believe that they would have the normal life span expected of men their age, according to a report on the research.