Sex bias in the assessment of patient complaints.

This study investigates the contention that physicians have prejudicial attitudes toward female patients. One hundred twenty of 220 (58 percent) primary care physicians returned questionnaires that recorded their attitudes toward two hypothetical patients, one with a headache, one with abdominal pain. By changing only the gender of nouns and pronouns, two otherwise identical versions of each case had been constructed, one case describing a female patient, one a male patient. The physician subjects recorded their attitudes on a semantic differential scale designed to measure three dimensions of attitudes toward patients: authenticity, impression of severity of illness, and emotionality. The physicians judged the female patients to be more emotional (P less than .05) but no less authentic or ill than the male patients.

Patient self-monitoring of behavior.

Family physicians often rely solely upon patients' recollections of events in the assessment and treatment of psychological complaints. One important method that is likely to enhance the quality and quantity of relevant clinical data is patient self-monitoring. Self-monitoring involves utilizing patients as self-observers and systematic recorders of information concerning their target complaint(s). Self-monitoring affords several advantages to both the patient and physician. It is especially useful as a basis for performing a functional analysis of behavior. The most valuable aspect of patient self-monitoring lies in the systematic collection and summarization of clinical information that is crucial for the assessment and treatment of psychosocial complaints.