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Zhou Y, Humphris G et al. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 2014; DOI 10.1007/s00405-014-3209-x

A multilevel modelling approach was used to explore the responses of consultants to emotional distress of their patients at review consultations following treatment for head and neck cancer. The keys findings were 1) consultants were more likely to reduce space (block) emotions elicited by patients, than emotions raised by themselves, and 2) 'were less likely to give space for disclosure of emotions that occurred later in the consultation', although this effect tended to go in reverse at 6 minutes into the consultation. This work suggests that consultants may assist patients by acknowledging the emotional needs of the patient. The methodology was elegant. The investigators used the Verona Coding Definitions of Emotional Sequence to quantify the emotional distress of patients and the response of consultants. Such data was extracted from audio recordings of 43 head and neck cancer follow-up consultations. The emotional wellbeing of the patient was not correlated with the reduced space response of the consultant.