Does training general practitioners result in more shared decision making during consultations?

We conducted a clustered randomised controlled trial to study the effects of shared decision making (SDM) on patient recovery. This study aims to determine whether GPs trained in SDM and reinforcing patients' treatment expectations showed more trained behaviour during their consultations than untrained GPs.

We compared 86 consultations conducted by 23 trained GPs with 89 consultations completed by 19 untrained GPs. The primary outcomes were SDM, as measured by the OPTION scale, and positive reinforcement, as measured by global observation. Secondary outcomes were the level of autonomy in decision making and the duration of the consultation.

Intervention consultations scored significantly higher on most elements of the OPTION scale, and on the autonomy scale; however, they were three minutes longer in duration, and the mean OPTION score of the intervention group remained below average.

Training GPs resulted in more SDM behaviour and more autonomy for the patient; however, this increase is not attributable to the adoption of a patient perspective. Furthermore, while we aimed to demonstrate that SDM facilitates the reinforcement of patients' positive expectations, the measurement of this behaviour was not reliable.

In supporting SDM, professionals should give greater attention to patients' treatment expectations.