Improved Patient Interaction: A Key Aspect for Recovery

Sharon Moore June 10, 2013

The ability of the physiotherapist to communicate with the patient verbally and non-verbally is almost as important as the treatment itself and therefore has a critical role to play in the healing and recovery of the patient – a new study suggests.

"The way we are applying treatment today is not the best approach," said Jorge Fuentes, the study author and a physical therapy graduate at the University of Alberta. This might be the reason why physical therapy interventions have modest effects for patients suffering from chronic conditions, he added. In his dissertation paper, Fuentes argued that the therapeutic context in which the interventions are delivered also matters and should be taken into great consideration by therapists.

He stressed that communication and active listening skills, eye contact, facial expressions, and tone of voice are non-specific factors of physical therapy that should be given emphasis during the entire treatment programme.

Patient Interaction Lead to Significant Pain Reduction

For the study, 117 patients with chronic low back pain were divided into four groups. The first group received electrotherapy after a five-minute interaction with the therapist who avoided eye contact and did not openly communicate with the patient. The second group undergo electrotherapy after interacting with a therapist who exhibited strong verbal and non-verbal communication skills. The third group had limited interaction with the therapist and were made to believe that they were undergoing electrotherapy but in truth, the device was not connected. This was what Fuentes called ‘sham treatment’. Patients in group four received enhanced interaction with the same sham treatment.

His findings showed that patients who received enhanced interaction along with real electrotherapy had a significant 3-point reduction in pain intensity on a 10-point scale, along with a two-kilogram increase in their pain thresholds. But what is surprising is that patients who received enhanced therapist interaction but only underwent sham treatment received the next greatest improvement. Furthermore, the group that received poor therapist interaction and a sham treatment had the least improvement.

Fuentes said that his study is just the first step in understanding the importance of non-specific factors and optimising treatments for patients. He will be going back to his hometown Chile to train a new generation of physiotherapists with focus on quality patient interaction.

Source of this article:

Grad to rehabilitate physical therapy training in native Chile