Patient Perception of Provider’s Attitude May Influence Health Outcomes

​The effect of unintentionally invalidating a patient's concerns about their condition may have a significant impact on their level of perceived pain, concludes a study published in the February 2015 issue of the American Journal of Medicine. Researchers interviewed five women with chronic pain about their appointments with their physicians, finding that physicians who unintentionally communicated a lack of investment in the patient's perspective may have actually aggravated the patients' perceived symptoms.