Evidence map›Paper›PMID 12351362›Full record

ArticleBMJ (Clinical research ed.)2002

Patients' perceptions of entitlement to time in general practice consultations for depression: qualitative study.

Kristian Pollock, Janet Grime

Open access · bronzeAbstract readMulticenter Study
In one paragraph

Article in BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 2002. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 44 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
44citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
14.6field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

44 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 106 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Trial
  4. Ambient scribes in general practice - help or hindrance?The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2026
    Article
  5. Sexual and Reproductive Health Services and Help-seeking Behaviors: Experiences and Perspectives of Young 1.5-Generation Bangladeshi Women in Toronto.The Canadian journal of nursing research = Revue canadienne de recherche en sciences infirmieres · 2025
    Article
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  8. Understanding access to general practice through the lens of candidacy: a critical review of the literature.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2024
    Review
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  11. Observational
  12. Review
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  20. 'She believed in me'. What patients with depression value in their relationship with practitioners. A secondary analysis of multiple qualitative data sets.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2017
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Kristian PollockDepartment of Medicines Management, Keele University, Keele ST5 5BG. k.pollock@keele.ac.uk
Janet Grime
Keele University · GBRutgers, The State University of New Jersey · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveTo investigate patients' perceptions of entitlement to time in general practice consultations for depression.

designQualitative study based on interviews with patients with mild to moderate depression.

settingEight general practices in the West Midlands and the regional membership of the Depression Alliance.

participants32 general practice patients and 30 respondents from the Depression Alliance.

resultsAn intense sense of time pressure and a self imposed rationing of time in consultations were key concerns among the interviewees. Anxiety about time affected patients' freedom to talk about their problems. Patients took upon themselves part of the responsibility for managing time in the consultation to relieve the burden they perceived their doctors to be working under. Respondents' accounts often showed a mismatch between their own sense of time entitlement and the doctors' capacity to respond flexibly and constructively in offering extended consultation time when this was necessary. Patients valued time to talk and would often have liked more, but they did not necessarily associate length of consultation with quality. The impression doctors gave in handling time in consultations sent strong messages about legitimising the patients' illness and their decision to consult.

conclusionsPatients' self imposed restraint in taking up doctors' time has important consequences for the recognition and treatment of depression. Doctors need to have a greater awareness of patients' anxieties about time and should move to allay such anxieties by pre-emptive reassurance and reinforcing patients' sense of entitlement to time. Far from acting as "consumers," patients voluntarily assume responsibility for conserving scarce resources in a health service that they regard as a collective rather than a personal resource.

Indexed as

CommunicationDepressive DisorderEnglandFamily PracticeHumansPatient SatisfactionPhysician-Patient RelationsTime Factors

Identifiers

PMID12351362
PMCPMC126657
OpenAlexW1529927872

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.