International
Doctors who are more empathetic towards their patients may be better at treating chronic pain, according to international researchers. The team asked 1,470 chronic pain patients to rate their doctor's empathy using a questionnaire, and followed their chronic pain outcomes over a year. Grouping the doctors into a 'very empathic' group, a 'slightly empathic' group and a 'least empathic group', the researchers say the more empathetic a patient's doctor was rated, the more likely they were to report lower pain intensity, lower back-related disability and better health-related quality of life. The researchers say this shows empathy can have positive outcomes for chronic pain patients, which means doctors should consider it an important skill to work on.
From:
In this study that included 1,470 adults with chronic low back pain, physician empathy was associated with better outcomes over 12 months. Greater efforts to cultivate and improve physician empathy appear warranted.
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