Coherent care pathways for medically unexplained symptoms

Medically unexplained symptoms in primary care.

Fourteen common physical symptoms are responsible for almost half of all primary care visits. Only about 10% to 15% of these symptoms are found to be caused by an organic illness over a 1-year period. Patients with medically unexplained symptoms are frequently frustrating to primary care physicians and utilize medical visits and costs disproportionately. This paper will review the relationship ...

Medically unexplained symptoms in primary care

An estimated 15–30% of all primary care consul­ tations are for medically unexplained symptoms (Kirmayer et al, 2004). Patients with such symptoms receive large amounts of symptomatic investigation and treatment (Barsky & Borus, 1999). The number of medically unexplained symptoms over a per­ son’s lifetime correlates linearly with the number of depressive and anxiety disorders experi enced (Kat...

Medically unexplained neurological symptoms

A 56-year-old woman with seronegative polyarthritis presented with a four-year history of lower back pain and right-sided sciatica. On examination she had reduced power and impaired sensation in her right leg. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the spine revealed anterior degenerative slip of L4 on L5 with moderate overall reduction in canal calibre and osteophyte encroachment in the right lat...

Explaining medically unexplained symptoms.

Patients with medically unexplained symptoms comprise from 15% to 30% of all primary care consultations. Physicians often assume that psychological factors account for these symptoms, but current theories of psychogenic causation, somatization, and somatic amplification cannot fully account for common unexplained symptoms. Psychophysiological and sociophysiological models provide plausible medi...

Consequences of Medically Unexplained Symptoms