Canovas, LuzCarrascosa, Antonio-JoseGarcia, ModestoFernandez, MarianoCalvo, AlmudenaMonsalve, VicenteSoriano, Jose-Francisco2023-01-252023-01-252017-07-13Cánovas L, Carrascosa AJ, García M, Fernández M, Calvo A, Monsalve V, et al. Impact of Empathy in the Patient-Doctor Relationship on Chronic Pain Relief and Quality of Life: A Prospective Study in Spanish Pain Clinics. Pain Med. 2018 Jul 1;19(7):1304-1314http://hdl.handle.net/10668/11662To assess the impact of the empathy of physicians, perceived by patients with chronic pain, regarding pain relief and health-related quality of life (HR-QoL). A prospective noninterventional study was conducted in 2,898 patients with moderate to severe chronic pain who were referred to pain clinics. The same physician visited each patient at baseline and after one and three months. Study questionnaires included the Jefferson Scale of Patient Perceptions of Physician Empathy (JSPPPE), the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R), the Pain Coping Questionnaire (CAD-R), the Brief Pain Inventory Short Form (BPI-SF), and the EuroQol-5D (EQ-5D). Regression analyses were used to evaluate the independent contribution of the changes in perceived empathy over pain intensity and improvement of HR-QoL. BPI-SF scores for pain intensity, rated as worst, least, average, and current pain, decreased significantly (P  Physicians' empathy and patients' dispositional optimism have a role in determining positive outcomes in patients with chronic pain. Physicians' empathy may therefore be a suitable, yet relatively unexplored, target for intervention.enEmotional AdjustmentEpidemiologyJefferson Scale of Patient Perceptions of Physician EmpathyPhysician-Patient RelationsPsychophysiologyAdultAgedChronic PainCohort StudiesEmpathyFemaleFollow-Up StudiesHumansMaleMiddle AgedPain ClinicsPain ManagementPhysician-Patient RelationsProspective StudiesQuality of LifeSpainresearch article29016846Restricted AccessEmpatíaDolor CrónicoDimensión del DolorCalidad de VidaAnálisis de Regresión10.1093/pm/pnx1601526-4637https://academic.oup.com/painmedicine/article-pdf/19/7/1304/25128396/pnx160.pdf