Importantly, the quality of the alliance between clinicians and patients is in part determined by how clinicians and patients communicate. Effective communication is considered to be an essential skill that clinicians need to master in clinical practice to improve quality and http://www.selleckchem.com/products/OSI-906.html efficiency of care (Mauksch et al 2008). In order to promote effective communication, it is important that the clinician and patient co-operate and co-ordinate their communication (Street et al 2007). What is already known on this topic: The therapeutic alliance refers to collaboration between the clinician and patient, their affective bond, and agreement on treatment goals. A strong therapeutic alliance positively

influences treatment outcomes such as improvement in symptoms and health status, and satisfaction with care. What this study adds: When a clinician’s interaction style facilitates the participation of the patient in the consultation – such as listening to what patients have to say and asking them questions with a focus on emotional issues – the therapeutic alliance is strengthened. It is known that communication does not rely only on what is said but also on the manner or style MEK inhibitor in which it is expressed, incorporating interplay

between verbal and non-verbal factors (Roberts and Bucksey 2007). Therefore, when studying how the exchange of messages occurs in a practitioner-patient encounter, the key communication factors that should be investigated are interaction styles (eg, being gentle, information giving, no and emotional support), verbal behaviours (eg, greetings, open-ended, and encouraging questions) and non-verbal behaviours (eg, facial expressions and gestures). Communication skills enhancing the alliance can be taught to clinicians, with training improving the quality of communication and

enabling clarification of patients’ concerns in consultations (Lewin et al 2009, McGilton et al 2009, Moore et al 2009). However, there is currently a lack of awareness of the range of communication factors that should be present during a consultation in order to build a positive therapeutic alliance. We were therefore interested in investigating which interaction styles, verbal and nonverbal communication factors employed by clinicians during consultations are associated with any underlying constructs of therapeutic alliance, such as collaboration, affective bond, agreement, trust, or empathy. The specific research question for this study was: Which communication factors correlate with constructs of therapeutic alliance? A sensitive search of seven online databases (Medline, PsycInfo, EMBASE, CINAHL, AMED, LILACS, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials) from earliest record to May 2011 was performed to identify relevant articles.