Internal Medicine Residents' Attitudes Toward Simulated Depressed Cardiac Patients During an Objective Structured Clinical Examination: A Randomized Study.

BACKGROUND: Physician biases toward mental conditions such as depression have been shown to adversely affect medical outcomes.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the relationship between residents' explicit bias toward depressed patients and their clinical skills on a cardiac case during an objective structured clinical exam (OSCE).

DESIGN: Prospective parallel randomized controlled study.

PARTICIPANTS: One hundred eighty-five internal medicine residents from three residency programs in two states.

INTERVENTION: During October-November 2015, residents were randomized to either a depressed or non-depressed standardized patient (SP) presenting with acute chest pain.

MAIN MEASURES: The Medical Condition Regard Scale (MCRS) assessed residents' explicit bias toward patients with depression. Their clinical skills (history-taking, physical examination, patient counseling, patient-physician interaction (PPI), differential diagnosis, and workup plan) and facial expressions were rated during an OSCE.

KEY RESULTS: No significant relationships were found between resident explicit bias and clinical skill measurements. Residents who examined the depressed SP scored lower, on average, on history-taking (t [183] = -2.77, p < 0.01, Cohen's d = 0.41) and higher on PPI (t [183] = 2.24, p < 0.05, Cohen's d = 0.33) than residents examining the non-depressed SP. There were no differences, on average, between stations on physical examination, counseling, correct diagnosis, workup plan, or overall SP satisfaction. Facial recognition software demonstrated that residents with a non-depressed SP had more neutral expressions than depressed-SP residents (t [133] = -2.46, p < 0.05, Cohen's d = 0.46), and residents with a depressed SP had more disgusted expressions than non-depressed-SP residents (t [83.52] = 2.10, p < 0.05, Cohen's d = 0.28).

CONCLUSIONS: Extrinsic bias did not predict OSCE performance in this study. Some differences were noted in the OSCE performance between the two stations. Further study is needed to examine the effects of patient mental health conditions on physician examination procedures, diagnostic behaviors, and patient outcomes.