most significant other
most significant other
Social medicineThe person in a patient’s life upon whom the patient most heavily depends for moral and physical support during periods of crisis and stress. The help of a patient‘s MSO may be enlisted by the medical team in patients with terminal disease. In the working parlance, “most” has been deleted, such that “significant other” has become the prevailing term. MSOs may include parents, spouses, children, lovers, siblings or friends; for some, most significant others can also include pets