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

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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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.

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

Conditions
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Healthy

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: Patient-centered style of communication
* Other: Doctor-centered style of communication


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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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

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years
Maximum Age: 35 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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Female

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

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


Arms and Interventions

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

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

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

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Willingness to take medication (VAS) | 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) | 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) | Concentration task | Directly (within 10 minutes) after the pill was offered |