Physician empathy

[Doctorplacebo]

Below is a review of a study on the effect of physician empathy on outcomes in patients with chronic pain. RLS patients are similar to chronic pain patients so the effect would probably be the same with us. The result is not surprising but nice to see someone is actually studying it.

You notice my username is Dr. Placebo. That is because I believe the most important function of a doctor is to be a walking, talking placebo. Unfortunately, with the digitalization of medicine, that aspect is disappearing. One of the reasons I retired.

April 18, 2024

Physician Empathy Is Associated Inversely with Chronic Pain Outcomes

Thomas L. Schwenk, MD, reviewing Licciardone JC et al. JAMA Netw Open 2024 Apr 1

Patients cared for by physicians with high empathy scores reported lower pain intensity and less disability.

Physician empathy is a core aspect of professionalism and might be particularly important when caring for patients with chronic pain. In this study, researchers explored the importance of empathy in 1470 adults (mean age, 53) with chronic low back pain who were participants in a larger U.S. study of patients with back pain; participants were asked to rate the empathy of their treating physicians on a validated 10-item scale (maximum score, 50). Physicians were categorized as having high or low empathy using a cutoff score of 30. Patients completed quarterly pain, function, and quality-of-life scales for 1 year.

In adjusted analyses, patients whose physicians were rated as having high empathy had more favorable scores on all scales than did patients treated by low-empathy physicians. All differences were considered to be clinically relevant. The high-empathy group's mean scores were 0.5 points better on a 10-point pain scale, 2 points better on a 24-point function scale, and 2 to 3 points better on several 70-point health-related quality-of-life scales.

COMMENT

These results support the idea that physician empathy might confer therapeutic benefit to patients with chronic low back pain. But it's also possible that patients who rated their physicians more highly for empathy were those whose pain was improving for other reasons. Moreover, whether the small average differences reported truly are clinically important could be debated. Questions that would be worth exploring are whether low-empathy physicians can improve through educational interventions and whether improvements in empathy lead to positive changes in patient outcomes.

CITATIONS

Licciardone JC et al. Physician empathy and chronic pain outcomes. JAMA Netw Open 2024 Apr 1; 7:e246026. (doi.org/10.1001/jamanetwork...

[ChrisColumbus]

Noticing the apparent date in the citation in your post (2024 Apr 1) and the fact that the link didn't work I feared at first an 'April Fool' jape! 🙃

However, I *think* that it's just an error in the citation date (should read April 11th) and the link has an extraneous parenthesis on the end. The study looks interesting. 👍🏻

Try this:

doi.org/10.1001/jamanetwork...

[Jelbea]

Dear Doctorplacebo - It is such a pity one of the good guys has retired. You are exactly right - empathy is greatly missing in any of my dealings with doctors. Years ago your doctor made you feel that he completely understood your suffering and felt for you. This made the patient feel supported and cared for.

On two separate occasions GPs in my surgery have actually shouted at me for taking buprenorphine. My daughter was present and could hardly believe that an octogenarian granny who is always pleasant and helpful could be treated in such a manner. I came away each time wishing that they would both develop severe restless legs syndrome just to let them see how it affected every part of their lives.

I know doctors are under stress but then of course so are we all. When I telephone the surgery (having to dial up to 150 times to get through) there is a recorded message telling us to understand their very difficult position and that is fine, but then as patients we are not afforded basic kindness.

Good Wishes

[Rayme]

thanks for the post, no doubt in my mind, empathy goes a long way towards feeling a touch better, at the very least. Our body and mind are one being, that's not news anymore . If stress can make RL worse, which I think it does for me, then empathy and kindness could help make it a bit better.

[b1interest]

Thank you for being a physician who cared. It's immensely important, and I'm sure that you made a difference for so many of your patients based on your kindness alone.