Prevalence of Burnout Among Pain Medicine Physicians and Its Potential Effect upon Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Oncologic Pain or Chronic Pain of Nononcologic Origin.

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of burnout among physicians treating patients with chronic pain and to assess the potential relationships between the presence of burnout and patients' clinical outcomes such as pain relief, satisfaction with pain control, and quality of life. Design: An observational, prospective, and noncomparative study. Setting: Pain medicine clinics. Subjects: Physicians from medical departments involved in the management of chronic pain. Patients aged ≥18 years who exhibited moderate chronic pain lasting at least three months. Methods: Physicians were evaluated with the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS). Patients were evaluated with the Charlson Comorbidity Index, the Brief Pain Inventory-Short Form (BPI-SF), the EuroQol-5D (EQ-5D), and ad hoc instruments for evaluating satisfaction with pain control, the extent to which the treatment met patients' expectations, and subjective impressions of improvement. Results: Of the 301 physician participants, 22 (7.3%, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 4.9 to 10.8) met the criteria of burnout. Burnout was higher among physicians from pain units, while none of the 35 primary care physicians reported burnout. The presence of burnout was positively associated with patients' pain relief (odds ratio [OR] = 1.423, 95% CI = 1.090 to 1.858) but not with satisfaction with pain control or quality of life. Of the remaining independent variables, being treated by pain unit physicians was significantly associated with worse pain relief (OR = 0.592, 95% CI = 0.507 to 0.691), lower satisfaction (ß = -0.680, 95% CI = -0.834 to -0.525), and worse quality of life (ß = -4.047, 95% CI = -5.509 to -2.585) compared with being treated by physicians from other specialties (e.g., traumatologists, oncologists, etc.). Conclusions: Our study shows a lack of negative or clinically relevant (as shown by the negligible to small effect sizes) impact of burnout on patient-reported outcomes (namely, pain relief, satisfaction, and quality of life) in patients with chronic pain who are treated by pain medicine physicians.

Impact of Empathy in the Patient-Doctor Relationship on Chronic Pain Relief and Quality of Life: A Prospective Study in Spanish Pain Clinics.

Objective: To assess the impact of the empathy of physicians, perceived by patients with chronic pain, regarding pain relief and health-related quality of life (HR-QoL). Methods: A prospective noninterventional study was conducted in 2,898 patients with moderate to severe chronic pain who were referred to pain clinics. The same physician visited each patient at baseline and after one and three months. Study questionnaires included the Jefferson Scale of Patient Perceptions of Physician Empathy (JSPPPE), the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R), the Pain Coping Questionnaire (CAD-R), the Brief Pain Inventory Short Form (BPI-SF), and the EuroQol-5D (EQ-5D). Regression analyses were used to evaluate the independent contribution of the changes in perceived empathy over pain intensity and improvement of HR-QoL. Results: BPI-SF scores for pain intensity, rated as worst, least, average, and current pain, decreased significantly (P < 0.001) from baseline to month 3, with reductions of 33.7%, 42.5%, 40.0%, and 46.9%, respectively. Pain intensity decreased from 6.3 ± 1.5 at baseline to 4.7 ± 1.8 at one month and 3.8 ± 1.9 at three months (P < 0.050). Significant (P < 0.001) improvements in the EQ-5D tariff (+37.1%) and EQ-5D VAS (+26.7%) were also recorded. In the linear regression analysis, JSPPPE and LOT-R, but not CAD-R, were significantly associated with pain relief and HR-QoL. Conclusions: Physicians' empathy and patients' dispositional optimism have a role in determining positive outcomes in patients with chronic pain. Physicians' empathy may therefore be a suitable, yet relatively unexplored, target for intervention.