Influence of psychiatric or social backgrounds on clinical decision making: a randomized, controlled multi-centre study.

Background: Frequent and repeated visits from patients with mental illness or free medical care recipients may elicit physicians' negative emotions and influence their clinical decision making. This study investigated the impact of the psychiatric or social background of such patients on physicians' decision making about whether to offer recommendations for further examinations and whether they expressed an appropriate disposition toward the patient.

Methods: A randomized, controlled multi-centre study of residents in transitional, internal medicine, or emergency medicine was conducted in five hospitals.