Doctor-Patient Relationship and Drug Prescription: A Feedback Link
Jose Luis Turabian
Citation: Jose Luis Turabian, "Doctor-Patient Relationship and Drug Prescription: A Feedback Link", OAS Journal of Medical and Health Sciences, Volume 01, Issue 01.
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
The doctor-patient interview in the consultation room is a technique, a channel, and a space for communication where the doctor-patient relationship is established and developed. This relationship allows for the integration of clinical reasoning by connecting the biomedical and psychosocial aspects of clinical care (1).
All healthcare activity is influenced, directly or indirectly, by the interpersonal relationship. There is no single “good” or “adequate” type of doctor-patient relationship. Several types of doctor-patient relationships have been described that are frequently used (active-passive relationship, guided cooperation relationship, and mutual participation relationship) (2). The doctor-patient relationship can vary depending on the different trajectories of illness (cardiovascular, hypertensive, asthmatic, digestive, psychiatric, endocrinological, incurable, cancer, or AIDS patients, etc.), the presence or absence of multimorbidity, transference and countertransference mechanisms, social class, gender, race, age, ideology, mechanisms of social control, and the different types of health and care systems (3). The doctor-patient relationship has different nuances in general medicine and other medical specialties such as gynecology, surgery, etc. (4, 5). And last doctor-patient relationship also shows differences according to the patient’s personal characteristics: confident, worried, fearful, etc. (2, 6).
Keywords: Physician-patient relations; Practice Patterns; Drug Prescriptions; Patient Participation; Patient Compliance; Patient Satisfaction; General Practice.
References:
1. Turabian JL , Perez Franco B. [Community Activities in Family Medicine and Primary Care]. Madrid: Díaz de Santos. 2001. https://editdiazdesantos.com/wwwdat/pdf/9788479784744.pdf
2. Turabian JL. Doctor-Patient Relationship in Pharmacological Treatment: Discontinuation and Adherence. COJ Rev & Res. 2018; 1(5). https://crimsonpublishers.com/cojrr/pdf/COJRR.000521.pdf
3. Turabian JL, Pérez Franco B. [Observations, reflections, and anecdotes from a physician's perspective, for a theory of the natural history of interpersonal continuity. The Colors of Time]. Rev Clin Med Fam. 2015; 8(2), 125-36. https://www.revclinmedfam.com/displayfile/Article/path_pdf/412
4. Turabian JL, Pérez-Franco B. [Journey to what is essentially invisible: Pysochosocial aspects of disease ]. Semergen. 2014; 40: 65-72. https://www.elsevier.es/es-revista-medicina-familia-semergen-40-articulo-viaje-lo-esencial-invisible-aspectos-S1138359313000580
5. Turabian J L. Physician-patient relationship in obstetrics and gynecology. Gynecol Obstet. 2017; 7: e123. https://www.longdom.org/open-access/physicianpatient-relationship-in-obstetrics-and-gynecology-2161-0932-1000e123.pdf
6. Turabian JL Doctor-Patient Relationship as Dancing a Dance. Journal of Family Medicine. 2018; 1(2):1-6. https://openaccesspub.org/jfm/article/912
7. Turabian JL and Perez Franco B. [The Effect of Seeing the Sea for the First Time. An Attempt at Defining the Family Medicine Law: The Interview is Clinical Medicine]. Aten Primaria. 2008; 40: 565-6. https://www.elsevier.es/es-revista-atencion-primaria-27-articulo-el-efecto-ver-primera-vez-mar-un-13128570
8. Mostafapour M, Fortier JH, Garber G. Exploring the dynamics of physician-patient relationships: Factors affecting patient satisfaction and complaints. J Healthc Risk Manag. 2024;43(4):16-25. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38706117/
9. González Menéndez R. [Psychology for general practitioners]. Ciudad de La Habana, Cuba: Editorial Científico-Técnica. 1979. https://es.scribd.com/document/395634471/Ricardo-Gonzalez-pdf
10. Chipidza FE, Wallwork RS, Stern TA. Impact of the Doctor-Patient Relationship. Prim Care Companion CNS Disord. 2015;17(5):10.4088/PCC.15f01840. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4732308/
11. Moreira V. From person-centered to humanistic-phenomenological psychotherapy: The contribution of Merleau-Ponty to Carl Rogers's thought. PCEP. 2012; 11(1), 48–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/14779757.2012.656410
12. Budd S, Sharma U (Editors). The healing Bond: The Patient-Practitioner Relationship Responsibility. London: Routledge. 1994. https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9781134876303_A25037180/preview-9781134876303_A25037180.pdf
13. Levenstein S. The Doctor as ‘Drug’. J Balint Soc. 1983; 11: 9-12. https://balintsociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/journal/Vol%2011%201983.pdf
14. Tasman A, Riba MB, Silk KR. Doctor-Patient Relationship: The Doctor-Patient Relationship in Pharmacotherapy: Improving Treatment Effectiveness. JAMA. 2000;284(21):2793–2794. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/193317
15. Steinke DT, MacDonald TM, Davey PG. The Doctor-Patient Relationship and Prescribing Patterns: A View from Primary Care. Pharmacoeconomics. 1999; 16, 599–603. https://doi.org/10.2165/00019053-199916060-00001
16. Turabian JL. Doctor-patient relationship in the de-prescription of pharmacological treatment. Fam Med Care. 2019; 2: 1-5. https://www.oatext.com/pdf/FMC-2-113.pdf
17. Dorenbaum D. [The relationship between psychiatrist and patient also matters when prescribing medication]. El País. 2026; 16 ABR. https://elpais.com/eps/2026-04-16/la-relacion-entre-medico-y-paciente-tambien-importa-para-recetar-pastillas.html
18. Moran M. Psychodynamic Prescribing: Meaning Matters With Medicine. APA Publishing; 2019;54(21). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2019.11a21
19. Solomon J, Raynor DK, Knapp P, Atkin K. The compatibility of prescribing guidelines and the doctor-patient partnership: a primary care mixed-methods study. Br J Gen Pract. 2012; 62 (597): e275-e281. https://shorturl.at/0zj76
20. Turabian JL, Pérez Franco B. [Impact of the induced prescription on the doctor-patient relationship]. Rev Calid Asist. 2011;26(1):67-69. https://www.elsevier.es/es-revista-revista-calidad-asistencial-256-pdf-S1134282X10001405
21. Turabián JL, Moreno-Ruiz S. The fable of the pine and the palm tree: the two extremes. Strategies to maximize the placebo effect and minimize the nocebo effect in primary health care. Ment Health Addict Res. 2016 ; 1(3): 44-46. https://oatext.com/The-fable-of-the-pine-and-the-palm-tree-the-two-extremes.-Strategies-to-maximize-the-placebo-effect-and-minimize-the-nocebo-effect-in-primary-health-care.php
22. Turabian JL. The placebo effect from the biopsychosocial perspective of general medicine: non-effective interventions that are, in fact, effective. Int J Fam Commun Med. 2019;3(1):16-21. https://medcraveonline.com/IJFCM/IJFCM-03-00122.pdf
23. Turabian JL. The Importance of the Placebo Effect in the Treatment of Different Diseases: A Vision From General Medicine. COJ Rev & Res. 2019;2(1). https://crimsonpublishers.com/cojrr/pdf/COJRR.000529.pdf
24. Turabian JL. Transference and countertransference are linked to placebo-nocebo effects and they are an auxiliary resource of unparalleled value in general medicine: Recommendations for general practitioners. Arch Psychiatr Ment Health. 2020; 4: 001-008. https://www.heighpubs.org/hjcap/pdf/apmh-aid1010.pdf
25. Turabian JL. Taking into Account Transfer and Counter Transfer to be Able to Apply Them as a Placebo Effect on the Patient. COJ Rev & Res. 2021; 3(2). https://crimsonpublishers.com/cojrr/pdf/COJRR.000556.pdf
26. Turabian JL. Epidemiology of Placebo Effect. Distribution, Frequency and Determining Factors. Medp Public Health Epidemiol. 2022; 1(1): mpphe-202210003. http://medpresspublications.com/articles/mpphe/mpphe-202210003.pdf
27. Rinaldi A, Bullo A, Schulz PJ. Patients' requests and physicians' prescribing behavior. A systematic review. Patient Educ Couns. 2025; 136: 108747. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738399125001144
