Brain and Behavioral Correlates of the Patient-Clinician Relationship: A longitudinal fMRI hyper-scanning study of chronic pain patients

Research suggests that a good patient-clinician therapeutic alliance can improve clinical outcomes. In this ongoing, longitudinal study, we applied fMRI hyper-scanning to determine whether behavioral, neural, and clinical variables associated with the therapeutic relationship between chronic pain patients and their clinicians influences clinical outcomes. Ten women with fibromyalgia (mean age=40, SD=10.71, each group N=5) were randomly assigned to either an Augmented (warm/attentive) or Limited (neutral/business-like) interaction style, and were treated with electro-acupuncture for 6 biweekly sessions.

Source: The Journal of Pain - May 1, 2021 Category: Materials Science Authors: Arvina Grahl, Alessandra Anzolin, Kylie Isenburg, Jeungchan Lee, Dan-Mikael Ellingsen, Changjin Jung, Maya Barton Zuckerman, Jessica Gerber, John Kelley, Irving Kirsch, Ted Kaptchuk, Vitaly Napadow Source Type: research