The Influence of Doctor-patient Communication on Patients' Willingness to Take Medication

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Healthy
• Interventions: Other: Doctor-centered style of communication; Other: Patient-centered style of communication

• Registration Number: NCT03046940
• Lead Sponsor: Philipps University Marburg Medical Center

Brief Summary

The experiment aims at investigating whether the doctor-patient communication has an influence on patients' willingness to take medication. Patients' attitude towards the medication is manipulated via a critical film sequence. Afterwards patients of the two experimental groups have a communication with one of the investigators of the study. Patients are told that the investigator is a medical doctor. The "doctors" either communicate in a patient-centered or doctor-centered style with the patient. Patients in the control group do not have the possibility to talk to a "medical doctor". Afterwards patients are offered the aforementioned pill that is supposed to be a cognitive enhancer (actually placebo pill). Pill intake is voluntary. The investigators hypothesize that patients in the experimental group with the patient-centered style of communication are more likely to take the pill than patients in the experimental group with the doctor-centered style of communication or patients in the control group.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2017-01-30
• Study First Submitted QC: 2017-02-06
• Study First Posted: 2017-02-08
• Study Start: 2017-03-15
• Status Verified: 2017-06
• Primary Completion: 2017-06-08
• Study Completion: 2017-06-08
• Last Update Submitted: 2017-06-08
• Last Update Posted: 2017-06-09

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: Female
• Target Recruitment: 120

Inclusion Criteria

• female
• between 18 and 35 years
• healthy
• adequate ability to see
• fluent in German (reading and writing)

Exclusion Criteria

• regular intake of cognitive enhancers/medication that enhances concentration
• intake of psychotropic drugs
• medical or pharmacy students, advanced psychology students
• participants who know the investigators

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Doctor-centered	Doctor-centered style of communication	Participants communicate with a doctor that uses a doctor-centered style of communication
Patient-centered	Patient-centered style of communication	Participants communicate with a doctor that uses a patient-centered style of communication

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Pill intake	Within 10 minutes after doctor-patient communication	Behavioural test

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Willingness to take medication (VAS)	Within 10 minutes prior to watching the film sequence, directly (within 5 minutes) after the film sequence, directly (within 10 minutes) after doctor-patient communication	Visual analogue scale (VAS)
Influence on concentration (Concentration task)	Directly (within 10 minutes) after the pill was offered	Concentration task
Critical attitude towards the medication (VAS)	Within 10 minutes prior to watching the film sequence, directly (within 5 minutes) after the film sequence, directly (within 10 minutes) after doctor-patient communication	Visual analogue scale (VAS)

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Philipps-University Marburg; 🇩🇪 Marburg, Germany