Drug Dependency clinical trials

Clinician-patient Interaction During Addiction Consultation

Accurately predicting the risk factors of patients' suffering a drug overdose plays a crucial role in effective prevention of drug overdose. In order to investigate possible risk factors for drug overdose, the NHS Fife Research & Development Office funded this project to be carried out by a group of researchers based in the University of St Andrews, in collaboration with the NHS Fife Addiction Services. To improve our understanding of drug misusers' risk of suffering a drug overdose, the investigators focus on the factors that are associated with the aspects of the addiction consultation process (e.g. verbal and non-verbal behaviours of clinicians and patients). The investigators are particularly interested in how clinicians recognize and manage patients' emotional concerns during consultations. Based on the empirical evidence in the area of patient-centred consultation, the investigators hypothesize that successful management of patient emotional distress is positively correlated with improved healthcare outcomes including patient's feeling more emotionally valued and satisfied with the consultation. The investigators also hypothesize, according to the research findings on the relationship between facial expressions and suicidal reattempt, that some non-verbal behaviours during consultation (e.g. patient's 'looking down' activity) are related to patient's risk of suffering a drug overdose. After obtaining informed consent from clinicians and patients, the investigators will video record a patient's first consultation session with a key worker within the NHS Fife Addition Services. The investigators expect to collect a minimum of 16 consultations (about eight clinicians with two patients per staff member) for this one-year pilot study. A validated coding scheme will be modified to code patients' expressions of emotional distress and clinicians' responses. Additional survey method will be also employed to collect demographic information and patient satisfaction. The investigators hope the findings of the study will improve our understanding of drug overdose risk factors and contribute to the development of drug overdose prevention programmes.