SYDNEY, 29 June 2006 - Doctors may have more power over whether people want to live or die than previously thought. A study published in Psychosomatics has found that the doctor-patient relationship has a significant bearing on whether terminally ill patients wish to hasten their death or not.

Psychiatrist, Frank Varghese from the School of Medicine at the University of Queensland conducted a study with researchers from across Australia with terminally ill cancer patients and found that doctors who had less psychological training had a greater impact on a patient's wish to their hasten death. This was also true if the doctor was willing to assist the patient in hastening death, if legally possible, or thought the patient had low levels of optimism.

"This may suggest that in a setting where there is a greater perception of a patient's emotional distress and hopelessness, combined with the doctor's limited psychological training and his or her own difficulty in caring for the patient, the doctor may be more inclined to hasten the death of the patient." Varghese said.

The study included 252 cancer patients and doctors from Princess Alexandra Hospital and Mt Olivet Hospital in Brisbane.

With assisted suicide being such a controversial topic, the study has thrown legislation in this area under the spotlight. And although it is currently illegal in Australia and most jurisdictions around the world for a doctor to assist suicide, researcher Brian Kelly from the University of Newcastle has questioned the impact on patients.

"The report raises serious concerns about the adverse effect such legislation has on the role of a doctor in the care of a dying patient, the goals of medical treatment and the need to promote better skills in the caring for emotional needs of patients who are dying and their families," Kelly said.

"Doctors face many stresses in the care of dying patients, and their reactions to the patients' distress and the doctor's reactions to severe and incurable illnesses in their patients may inadvertently lead the doctor to support the patient in their interest of assisted suicide.

"They should instead be taking an approach that aims to understand the basis of the patients' request and distress in the usual therapeutic role, and identifying the ways of assisting the patient and family."