title: Which medical interview skills are associated with patients' verbal indications of undisclosed feelings of anxiety and depressive feelings?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In medical practice, obtaining information regarding patients' undisclosed "feelings of anxiety" or "depressive feelings" is important. The purpose of this study was to determine which interview skills are best suited for eliciting verbal indications of undisclosed feelings, for example anxiety or depressive feelings in patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Our group videotaped 159 medical interviews at an outpatient department of the Department of Family Medicine, Mie University Hospital (Mie, Japan). Physicians' medical interview skills were evaluated using a Medical Interview Evaluation System and Emotional Information Check Sheet for assessing indications of "feelings of anxiety" or "depressive feelings". We analyzed the relationship between the interview skills and patients' consequent emotional disclosure using generalized linear model (GLIM).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The usage of interview skills such as "open-ended questions" "asking the patient's ideas about the meaning of illness" "reflection" and "legitimization" were positively associated with the number of anxiety disclosure, whereas "close-ended questions" and "focused question" were negatively associated. On the other hand, only "respect" was positively associated with the number of depressive disclosures, whereas "surveying question" was negatively associated.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results revealed that there are several interview skills that are effective in eliciting verbal indication of undisclosed "feelings of anxiety" or "depressive feelings".
authors.affiliation: Department of Education and Research in Family and Community Medicine, Mie University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-174 Edobashi, Tsu, Mie 514-8507 Japan.
authors.forename: Michiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Goto
authors.affiliation: Department of Education and Research in Family and Community Medicine, Mie University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-174 Edobashi, Tsu, Mie 514-8507 Japan ; Department of Family Medicine, Mie University School of Medicine and Graduate School of Medicine, 2-174 Edobashi, Tsu, Mie 514-8507 Japan.
authors.forename: Yousuke C
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Takemura
keywords: Anxiety; Communication; Depression; Family medicine; Medical interview