TY  - JOUR
A1  - Engler, Jennifer
A1  - Güthlin, Corina
A1  - Bertram, Laura
A1  - Tesky, Valentina
A1  - Schall, Arthur
A1  - Joos, Stefanie
A1  - Valentini, Jan
T1  - General practitioners’ communication on complementary and integrative medicine for cancer patients: findings from an analysis of consultations with standardised patients
T2  - European journal of cancer care
N2  - Objective: Our aim was to explore whether general practitioners (GPs) communicate with cancer patients on complementary and integrative medicine (CIM) in a patient-centred and case-specific manner.
Methods: We designed two cases of standardised breast cancer patients and allocated 29 GPs to hold a consultation either with Case 1 or Case 2. Case 1 presented with fears of possible physical side effects of hormone treatment. Case 2 feared a loss in social functioning because of nausea and emesis as possible side effects of chemotherapy. Consultations were audiotaped and analysed using the Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS). We analysed whether recommended CIM treatments and GPs' focus on psychosocial or medical and therapy-related content differed according to whether they were counselling Case 1 or Case 2.
Results: In consultations with Case 1, GPs rather focused on medical and therapy-related content and most often recommended mistletoe, diets and sports. In contrast, GPs focused on psychosocial content and they most often recommended methods of self-care when counselling Case 2.
Conclusion: The GPs in our sample reacted case-specifically to the patients' interest in CIM. Such responsive and patient-centred communication is a valuable resource but is often time-consuming. Adequate training and reimbursement should therefore be considered for GPs.
KW  - cancer
KW  - complementary medicine
KW  - counselling
KW  - general practitioners
KW  - integrative medicine
KW  - patient-centred care
Y1  - 2022
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/73503
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-735032
SN  - 1365-2354
N1  - This work was supported by Deutsche Krebshilfe under Grant 70112513.
N1  - Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.
VL  - 31
IS  - 6, art. e13651
SP  - 1
EP  - 10
PB  - Hindawi Limited
CY  - London
ER  -