Chronic pain
Chronic pain consultations can be a nightmare for patients and doctors alike. The lack of effective treatment options and difficulties with drug addictiveness and side effects are key sources of dissatisfaction. It is surprising, then, that there is relatively little empirical research on the impact of patient–doctor communication on chronic pain consultation satisfaction. A Californian primary care study analysed video recordings of 86 consultations with patients taking long-term opioids for chronic musculoskeletal pain.1 The research team coded all pain-related communication during the visits, and supplemented this with pre- and post-consultation questionnaires. Patient requests for opioid dose increases were positively associated with worse ratings of patient experience and greater …