Background. The prevalence of medically unexplained symptoms (MUSs) in primary care is about 10-15%. The definition of MUS is descriptive and there are no specific diagnostic criteria for MUS in primary care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To investigate whether the general practitioners' (GP) diagnosis of medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) and/or the diagnosis functional disorders (FD) can predict the patients' 2-year outcome in relation to physical and mental health and health care utilisation. Furthermore, to identify relevant clinical factors which may help the GP predict the patient's outcome.
Method: The study included 38 GPs and 1785 consecutive patients who presented a new health problem.
Objective: We sought to examine (1) whether the patients' and the family physicians' (FPs') beliefs about the nature of a health problem predict health outcomes and (2) whether the FPs were aware of their patients' beliefs.
Methods: A 2-year follow-up study of 38 FPs and 1131 patients presenting with well-defined physical disease (n=922) or medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) (n=209) according to the FPs was conducted. Before the consultation, patients categorized their health problem as being either physical or both physical and psychological.
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