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

June 8, 2017 updated by: Winfried Rief, Philipps University Marburg Medical Center
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.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

120

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Germany
      • Marburg, Germany, 35032
        • Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Philipps-University Marburg

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 35 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

Female

Description

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 Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Basic Science
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control group
No communication with a doctor
Experimental: Patient-centered
Participants communicate with a doctor that uses a patient-centered style of communication
Other: Patient-centered style of communication
Different doctor-patient communication
Experimental: Doctor-centered
Participants communicate with a doctor that uses a doctor-centered style of communication
Other: Doctor-centered style of communication
Different doctor-patient communication

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Pill intake
Time Frame: Within 10 minutes after doctor-patient communication
Behavioural test
Within 10 minutes after doctor-patient communication

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Willingness to take medication (VAS)
Time Frame: 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)
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
Critical attitude towards the medication (VAS)
Time Frame: 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)
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
Influence on concentration (Concentration task)
Time Frame: Directly (within 10 minutes) after the pill was offered
Concentration task
Directly (within 10 minutes) after the pill was offered

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Philipps University Marburg Medical Center

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Winfried Rief, PhD, Prof, Philipps University Marburg Medical Center

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

March 15, 2017

Primary Completion (Actual)

June 8, 2017

Study Completion (Actual)

June 8, 2017

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 30, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 6, 2017

First Posted (Estimate)

February 8, 2017

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 9, 2017

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 8, 2017

Last Verified

June 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2016-37v-r

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Healthy

Clinical Trials on Patient-centered style of communication

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

CROs by country

CROs in Mexico

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

Subscribe