Communication and empathy within the patient-physician relationship among patients with and without chronic pain.

Context: Chronic pain may affect the relationship between patients and their treating physicians.

Objectives: This study was designed to compare four aspects of physician communication and physician empathy reported by patients with chronic pain and in chronic pain-free controls.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted within a national pain research registry from July 2020 through January 2024.

Impact of Shared Decision-Making on Opioid Prescribing Among Patients With Chronic Pain: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Shared decision-making (SDM) involving patient and physician is a desirable goal that is recommended in chronic pain management guidelines. This study measured whether SDM affects opioid prescribing frequency for chronic low back pain. A retrospective cohort study involving 1,478 participants was conducted within a national pain research registry.

Physician Empathy and Chronic Pain Outcomes.

Importance: Empathy is an aspect of the patient-physician relationship that may be particularly important in patients with chronic pain.

Objective: To measure the association of physician empathy with pain, function, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among patients with chronic low back pain.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cohort study included adult enrollees from the Pain Registry for Epidemiological, Clinical, and Interventional Studies and Innovation national pain research registry.

Pain catastrophizing and risk of progression to widespread pain among patients with chronic low back pain: A retrospective cohort study.

Background: Chronic low back pain often progresses to widespread pain. Although many factors are associated with progression, their roles in contributing to chronic widespread pain (CWP) are often unclear.

Objective: To determine if pain catastrophizing is an independent risk factor for CWP.