Taking a patient’s history: the right order of questions
In Neurotherapy (LMNT), the first consultation follows a fixed order of questions. Easy, neutral questions come first to build trust; sensitive questions about habits, medicines and private matters come later, asked alone and without judgement.
Overview
The order of a first history is not the order most people would invent. The answer to a question is changed by the questions that came before it. A patient who has answered eight easy questions truthfully is in the habit of truth. One whose second question was about alcohol has learnt that this is a place of judgement.
So the history begins with the patient’s own words, then the complaint mapped: since when, where exactly, what makes it worse or better, and what they can no longer do. Then come neutral questions nobody is ashamed of: hunger, sleep, energy, weakness, lightness and glasses of plain water drunk yesterday. Digestion, the bowel and a head-to-foot checklist follow.
Only after that does the therapist ask about daily life and work, past illnesses and operations, what is swallowed, habits such as tobacco, and in women the menstrual and pregnancy history. These later questions are asked with the patient alone. Before asking about medicines, the therapist first says plainly: we use no medicine here, and we never ask anyone to stop theirs.
The history ends with one open question: is there anything I have not asked you about? On the card, three things are kept apart: the complaint in the patient’s words, the history, and the therapist’s own finding.
Key points
- Easy, answerable questions come before sensitive ones.
- Neutral topics like hunger and sleep come before habits that people expect to be judged for.
- Ask about yesterday, not about usually; yesterday gives facts.
- Ask for an event, a number or a pointing, never for a verdict.
- Keep the complaint, the history and the finding in separate places on the card.
Go deeper
Taking a Patient's Story: The History That Cannot Mislead
The history that cannot mislead you: the full guide
Six things patients hold back, and how a therapist finds them
What patients hold back, and how it is found
How a therapist asks about undigested food in the stool: the UDF questions, the tongue and the curd test
The undigested-food questions asked during digestion
Reading the stool: the seven stool forms and what they mean
The bowel questions, asked in a calm voice
Consent, dignity and a chaperone during treatment
Consent, dignity and the chaperone
Treating Women: Periods, Pregnancy and Care
The women’s questions, asked in private
Read the full guide
This topic is part of: Taking a Patient's Story: The History That Cannot Mislead
Safety: when it is held back
- Neurotherapy (LMNT) uses no medicine and never asks anyone to stop theirs. Any change in medicine is decided by the doctor who prescribed it.
This page explains what a Neurotherapy (LMNT) treatment is for; it is not a self-treatment guide and does not diagnose. Neurotherapy (LMNT) works alongside your medical care — keep taking the medicines your doctor prescribed.