title: Assessing the consultation: method for measuring changes in patient stress and arousal.
abstract: A method has been developed to assess anxiety levels in terms of stress and arousal in patients before and after a consultation with a general practitioner. The MACL self report mood scale has been used in hospital outpatient studies. An adaptation of the scale using 26 items of low vocabulary was applied to general practice patients in a novel way to show appreciable reductions in stress and increases in arousal after consultations. Since arousal is related to efficiency of performance and stress has been inversely related to recall of information given in the consultation factors that affect stress and arousal in patients could usefully be identified.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001143:Arousal; D002648:Child; D005194:Family Practice; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D013997:Time Factors