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The results of previous studies on the relationship be tween patient satisfaction and specific interviewing be haviors have been difficult to generalize because most studies have examined small samples of patients at one clinical location, and have used initial or acute care vis its where the patient and physician did not have an established relationship. The present collaborative study of medical interviewing provided an opportunity to collect interviews from 550 return visits to 127 dif ferent physicians at 11 sites across the country. Tape recordings were analyzed using the Roter Interaction Analysis System, and postvisit satisfaction question naires were administered to patients. A number of significant relationships were found between communication during the visit and the vari ous dimensions of patient satisfaction. Physician ques tion asking about biomedical topics (both open-and closed-ended questions) was negatively related to pa tient satisfaction; however, physician question asking about psychosocial topics was positively related. Physi cian counseling for psychosocial issues was also posi tively related to patient satisfaction. Similarly, patient talk about biomedical topics was negatively related to satisfaction, while patient talk regarding psychosocial topics was positively related. Furthermore, patients were less satisfied when physicians dominated the inter view by talking more or when the emotional tone was characterized by physician dominance. The findings suggest that patients are most satis fied by interviews that encourage them to talk about psychosocial issues in an atmosphere that is character ized by the absence of physician …