Bedside manner can affect patients' pain
US study shows if a doctor believes in a medication, they can transfer this belief to the patient
22nd October 2019
By Kemal Atlay
Doctors who believe in a treatment’s effectiveness and therefore display more empathy can influence a patient’s perception of pain through a socially transmitted placebo effect, a US study suggests.
The findings, published in Nature Human Behaviour, highlight the importance of a good bedside manner and have important implications for clinical interactions, the researchers say.
In a simulated clinical interaction, researchers from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, US, randomly assigned 194 undergraduate students (aged 18-28) to role-play as either a