Product-use status showed selective associations with hypothetical coping preferences, physician trust, and communication-related attitudes rather than a uniform pattern of reluctance to seek professional support, with current use most strongly associated with lower trust and less favorable product-related communication attitudes.
The majority of respondents reported current or past use of mood- and stress-relief dietary supplements or OTC medications.
Current and past users had significantly higher adjusted odds of selecting future DS/OTC use as a hypothetical coping strategy compared to never-users.
Past users had significantly higher adjusted odds of selecting psychotherapy as a hypothetical future coping strategy compared to never-users.
Current users showed lower physician trust scores than never-users on both the communication competency and global trust subscales of the T-DiG scale.
Current users were less likely than never-users to prefer discussing product-related doubts first with their physician.
The associations between product-use status and outcomes were selective rather than forming a uniform pattern of professional help-seeking reluctance.
The study used a cross-sectional convenience sampling design, limiting causal and temporal inferences.
This research suggests that people who use dietary supplements or over-the-counter medications for mood improvement and stress relief differ from non-users in how much they trust their doctors and how willing they are to talk openly with physicians about these products. In a survey of nearly 800 Polish adults, current users of such products reported lower levels of trust in their doctors' communication skills and overall trustworthiness, and were less likely to say they would bring up questions or doubts about these products with a physician first. These patterns were most pronounced among people currently using these products, compared to those who had used them in the past or never used them. Interestingly, the findings did not show a simple picture where supplement users broadly avoid professional help. Past users—those who had previously used such products but stopped—were actually more likely than never-users to say they would choose psychotherapy as a future coping strategy if resources were unlimited. This suggests that the relationship between supplement use and professional help-seeking is more nuanced than a straightforward substitution of self-directed coping for professional care. This research matters because it highlights a potential gap in communication between patients and doctors around supplement and OTC medication use. The finding that current users are less likely to feel comfortable raising product-related doubts with their physician points to missed opportunities for guidance on safety, interactions, or appropriateness of these products. However, because this was a cross-sectional survey relying on hypothetical scenarios, it cannot determine whether lower trust leads to supplement use, or whether supplement use leads to lower trust—or whether some third factor explains both.
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Upload Your LabsBrzozowska A, Grabowski J, Brosz M. (2026). Use of Mood- and Stress-Relief Dietary Supplements and Over-the-Counter Medications in Relation to Physician Trust, Hypothetical Help-Seeking Preferences, and Communication-Related Attitudes: A Cross-Sectional Survey.. Nutrients. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu18162726