Impact of Empathy in the Patient-Doctor Relationship on Chronic Pain Relief and Quality of Life: A Prospective Study in Spanish Pain Clinics.

Objective To assess the impact of the empathy of physicians, perceived by patients with chronic pain, regarding pain relief and health-related quality of life (HR-QoL). Methods A prospective noninterventional study was conducted in 2,898 patients with moderate to severe chronic pain who were referred to pain clinics. The same physician visited each patient at baseline and after one and three months. Study questionnaires included the Jefferson Scale of Patient Perceptions of Physician Empathy (JSPPPE), the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R), the Pain Coping Questionnaire (CAD-R), the Brief Pain Inventory Short Form (BPI-SF), and the EuroQol-5D (EQ-5D). Regression analyses were used to eva…