title: Interaction analysis of physician-patient communication: the influence of trait anxiety on communication and outcome.
abstract: Little attention has been paid to how patients' personality traits interfere with the communication and the outcome of physician-patient interaction. We performed an experimental study with students with high and low trait anxiety as patients. One physician conducted a single consultation with 41 students applying two beforehand-specified consultation styles. Patients completed questionnaires concerning emotional state and satisfaction. The actual content of the consultations was analyzed by Roter interaction analysis system (RIAS). The physician gave more biomedical information to low-anxiety students than high-anxiety students. Students who provided a lot of biomedical information themselves were less tense after the consultation. However, students with high anxiety were more dependent on the physician actively asking biomedical questions for them to be able to deliver that same information. In contrast to low-anxiety students, those with high anxiety were less satisfied after consultations involving many psychosocial questions posed by the physician and a good deal of emotional talk on their own part. Compared to low-anxiety students, students with high anxiety were less satisfied and tenser after consultations with much positive emotional talk on the part of the physician. We conclude that physicians and educators should be aware that psychological and emotional communication may be experienced as intrusive and inappropriate by patients with high trait anxiety when they present minor somatic problems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioral Sciences in Medicine, University of Oslo, PO Box 1111, Blindern, 0317 Oslo, Norway. p.k.graugaard@basalmed.uio.no
authors.forename: Peter Kjaer
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Graugaard
authors.forename: Hilde
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Eide
authors.forename: Arnstein
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Finset
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D003142:Communication; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010551:Personality; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires