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...