Physician Empathy Is Associated Inversely with Chronic Pain Outcomes

Physician empathy is a core aspect of professionalism and might be particularly important when caring for patients with chronic pain. In this study, researchers explored the importance of empathy in 1470 adults (mean age, 53) with chronic low back pain who were participants in a larger U.S. study of patients with back pain; participants were asked to rate the empathy of their treating physicians on a validated 10-item scale (maximum score, 50). Physicians were categorized as having high or low empathy using a cutoff score of 30. Patients completed quarterly pain, function, and quality-of-life scales for 1 year.

In adjusted analyses, patients whose physicians were rated as having high empathy had more favorable scores on all scales than did p…