About a quarter of the physicians state that they inform their patients between 50% and 90% of the time. Over half of the physicians inform their patients in general terms of their illnesses but not in detail. Less than half of the physician participants in the study feel that patients want to be told all the details of their condition. These findings are in contrast to two studies that found 98% and 90% of physicians gave cancer patients specific information about their condition.7, 8 All physicians participating in this study wished to be informed of a life-threatening illness if they were the patient. A similar study of Alzheimer's disease found that 71% of those physicians wanted to be informed.9 The physicians in that study informed their patients about 40% of the time. In the current study, internal medicine and family practice are two specialties which were also in the earlier study.