In a small study conducted at Veterans Affairs Hospital, Houston, the appointments between doctors and 10-patients were audio-taped and analyzed for any empathy the concerned physicians might have shown those suffering from a deadly illness. However, the study findings reinforce other research that shows a majority of doctors fail to respond or acknowledge a patient’s emotional difficulties or predicament, providing little or no emotional support, despite the fact that their patients seemed to be looking for some.
Assessing interaction between a small group of people with lung cancer and their doctors, U.S. researchers found that the doctors showed empathy only 10% of the time when patients commented on the personal impact of cancer, their diagnosis, treatment and difficulties with the health care system.
Dr. Diane Morse of the University of Rochester Medical Centre in Rochester, New York whose findings appear in the Archives of Internal Medicine journal says, providing empathy doesn’t mean more time spent with the patient. Doctors should acknowledge what they hear, be succinct with their words of empathy and speak them early on during the appointment. If, a patient asks how long he has to live, they can simply respond by admitting it is a scary question and acknowledge the patient’s misfortune.
Other studies were also carried out and involved word-by-word analysis of doctor-patient meetings, in order to assess how the doctors responded to patients worried about death, mistrust of medical care and the emotions that wracked them after hearing they had an illness whose outcome was fatal. Unidentified by name, though both doctors and patients knew they were being recorded, researchers found there were 384 times during these appointments when patients expressed worry and seemed depressed over their plight. However, there were only 39-instances when doctors showed empathy.
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