Understanding care relationships in diabetes practice: A psychodynamic interview-based exploratory study

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Internal Medicine
• Healthcare Management

Background:

• Diabetes care presents unique emotional challenges for physicians.
• Understanding physicians' subjective experiences is vital for their professional health and patient adherence management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore physicians' emotional experiences in diabetes care relationships.
• To identify factors influencing physician professional health and patient adherence.

Main Methods:

• An interview-based exploratory study with 18 physicians in diabetes care.
• Analysis of in-depth interviews using computer-based text analysis (Cluster and Correspondence Analysis).
• Psychodynamic and constructivist lens applied to thematic and factor identification.

Main Results:

• Six thematic domains emerged: Concern, Control, Ambivalence, Devotion, Guilt, and Strive for Achievement.
• Three latent dimensions explained 69.20% of variance: Affect Repression, Tendency to Repair, and Anxiety Pattern.
• Physicians' efforts to restore patients' psychological integrity in chronic conditions were a key finding.

Conclusions:

• Diabetes care is inherently challenging, requiring significant emotional labor from physicians.
• Emotional labor training is recommended to prevent physician burnout and enhance shared decision-making.
• Findings are preliminary due to sample size and convenience sampling.