Patient-Centered Practice May Decrease Pain

By Georgianna Reilly, LMSW
SJS Staff Writer

A recent article by Science Daily looks at a small research study recently done regarding the impacts of Patient-Centered Practice with those seeking services from Physicians. The study done with 9 women suggests that those who experience Patient-Centered interactions with their physicians ( including the ability to share their story, experiencing empathy, and build a trusting bond with their doctor) had  greater satisfaction and confidence in a post measure, and most interestingly seemed to have improved responses to stress and pain. Subject who experienced the Patient-Centered Practice were more likely to report experiencing less pain during a post meeting shock test.  The article finishes by summing up the need for improved research in this are a well :

“”Medicine has for too long focused just on the physical dimensions of the patient,” said Smith, who co-authored the paper. “Those clinical questions are important and necessary, but we’re trying to demonstrate that when you let patients tell their story in an unfettered way, you get more satisfied patients who end up healthier.”

I think this is a good start in the move towards proving biological evidence for the need for patient centered practice, something often overlooked in health care today. However, I would have liked to see a bit more detail of this study and I do have a few concerns. First, it is small, but the researchers acknowledge the need to expand and do further research in the article.  Second, they could improve their strength as a study by conducting a pre and post test on all participants. This would allow them to determine how much the patient-centered interaction truly changed the pain tolerance and other factors of an individual’s health by looking at both group and individual findings.

My final concern is more theoretical I suppose. Does empathy and patient-centered practice truly heal or does it just allow us to ‘ignore’ the pain? Are those with better doctors less likely to acknowledge the pain they feel because they are satisfied and thus neglect their health problems? I could see this as a concern as many things cannot be healed by words. But, it seems better relationships and positive world view do improve health and help us live longer so perhaps there is something to this.

You can find the full article here: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121203145952.htm