ABSTRACT
The experience of entering an operating theatre highlights the extent to which trust plays a role in medical treatment. This chapter focuses on trust in physicians/doctors and nurses because of its prevalence in psychological research, although there is a broader domain of medical trust that is important in its own right. It reviews the research showing that generalised trust, trust in health professionals, and trust in romantic partners are associated with health. The chapter addresses the apparent racial disparities of HIV treatment and trust in physicians, as well as the relation between eating disorders and the lack of trust. It describes physician-patient working alliance programs as an important blend of trust and joint decision-making in medical treatment. The chapter suggests that low generalised trust beliefs were linked to poor health/lower mortality because those relations were the results of factors such as lack of social support, cynicism, reductions in the body's immunity to illness, and unwillingness to seek out medical treatment.
