U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Health Services Research and Development Service.

Military personnel who were deployed to the Gulf Region during the Gulf War period experienced a greater post-war risk of ALS than those who were not deployed to the Gulf.

Findings suggest that 4 individual, biweekly sessions represents the optimal dosing for the CBT intervention tested. Additional dose-response studies are warranted to test CBT models that contain additional treatment components or are delivered via group therapy.

Purpose Motivational Interviewing (MI) is used to help patients change their behaviors. We sought to determine if physician use of specific MI techniques increases patient satisfaction with the physician and perceived autonomy. Methods We audio-recorded preventive and chronic care encounters between 40 primary care physicians and 320 of their overweight or obese patients. We coded use of MI techniques (eg, empathy, reflective listening). We assessed patient satisfaction and how much the patient felt the physician supported him or her to change. Generalized estimating equation models with logit links were used to examine associations between MI techniques and patient perceived autonomy and satisfaction. Results Patients whose physicians were rated as more empathic had higher rates of high satisfaction than patients whose physicians were less empathic (29% vs 11%; P = .004). Patients whose physicians made any reflective statements had higher rates of high autonomy support than those whose physicians did not (46% vs 30%; P = .006). Conclusions When physicians used reflective statements, patients were more likely to perceive high autonomy support. When physicians were empathic, patients were more likely to report high satisfaction with the physician. These results suggest that physician training in MI techniques could potentially improve patient perceptions and outcomes.