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Medically Unexplained
Symptoms
Adrian Flynn
Consultant Liaison Psychiatrist
January 2013
Aims
Be contentious
Explore current practice
Consider costs and prevalence
Empathy
Psychological Explanation
New classifications / way of thinking
General tips
Format
45 mins presentation and discussion
15mins trainee’s experience
BREAK
30 mins Group discussion and feedback
20mins Consultation / suggestions
10mins Discussion / re-cap
MUS
Medically Unexplained Symptoms
(MUS) are persistent bodily
complaints for which adequate
examination does not reveal sufficient
explanatory structural or specified
pathology.
Never Have Your Dog Stuffed
3 Recent Referrals
Miss P
Ms F
Mrs T
Is this familiar?
What do you want to say to these patients?
What would you have said to them 20years
ago?
Do you use diagnostic terms with these
patients?
How were you taught or where did you
learn about the management of these
patients?
What guidelines do you follow?
Do doctors manage this consistently?
How do you feel about these patients?
Classification
Somatisation Disorder
Somatoform pain disorder
Hypochondriasis
Functional Somatic Syndromes
Dissociative Disorder
Conversion disorder
Are you comfortable with any of these?
Are your patients?
But does it really matter?
22% of all people attending primary care have subthreshold levels of somatisation disorders
A further 5% of individuals have clinical somatisation
disorders
They account for
8% of all prescriptions
25% outpatient care
8% inpatient bed days and
5% accident and attendances
50% more likely to attend primary care
33% more likely to attend acute secondary care
20% of MUS patients account for 62% of spend
Signs, symptom ill-defined conditions ICD
6.3% in US healthcare
25% of new symptoms in primary
care – but one visit only
But 10% (2.5% of total) are
persistent
More common in secondary care –
40% persist
But does it really matter?
Clinic Prevalence (95% CI)
Chest
Cardiology
Gastroenterology
Rheumatology
Neurology
Dental
Gynaecology
Total
59%
56%
60%
58%
55%
49%
57%
(46-72)
(46-67)
(45-73)
(47-69)
(45-65)
(37-61)
(50-68)
56% (52-60)
Nimnuan et al 2001 J Psychosom Res
But does it really matter?
The NHS cost in England amounts to £3.1Bn (2008/9)
with a further £5.2Bn attributable to lost productivity
and £9.3Bn reduced quality of life Total £14Bn
Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health - £2.8Bn
Equates to £25M – £130M per year in Cornwall
Diabetes?
Bermingham S, Cohen A, Hague J, Parsonage M. The cost of somatisation
among the working-age population in England for the year 2008/09 Mental
Health in Family Medicine
No health without mental health: A cross Government mental health
outcomes strategy for people of all ages Supporting document – The
economic case for improving efficiency and quality in mental health.2010
Department of Health
Scottish Neurological Symptoms
Study
N = 3782 - ‘To what extent can the
patients symptoms be explained by
organic disease?’
Not at all Somewhat Largely
Completely -
12%
19%
- 24%
45%
12 Month Outcome of the 31% with
MUS
60%
50%
40%
30%
3 months
12months
20%
10%
0%
Much
better
Just the
same
Much
Worse
Do Medically Unexplained Symptoms Matter?
Carson et al. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2000;68:207–210
N = 300
Similarly categorised
Similar levels of physical disability
Higher total symptom count and pain
in those with lower organicity
Higher levels of anxiety and
depression in the lower organicity
group 70% vs 32%
Change of Diagnosis
Completely
Largely
Somewhat
Not at all
-
0.3%
2%
0.5%
2%
At follow-up only 4 out of 1030 patients
(0.4%) had acquired an organic disease
diagnosis that was unexpected at initial
assessment and plausibly the cause of the
patients’ original symptoms.
Underlying Pathology
Slater 1965
Repeats Roth, Trimble/Mace, Crimlisk
– 2-4%
Kooiman et al - 5 out of 284
Stone et al – 4 out of 1030
?Negligent to continue to investigate
Medical Generalism RCGP 2012
Real conversations are required
Real conversations require real empathy
Empathy requires understanding
Understanding needs to be conveyed
Understanding combines
- biomedical knowledge
- biographical knowledge
Conveying requires communication skills
Is there a way of doing things
differently?
Never Have Your Dog Stuffed
The Development of Symptoms
What is really going on?
We tend to respond to people in the
way we anticipate they will treat us
and
From how others relate to us, we
learn how to relate to ourselves.
Personal biographical history
Reciprocal roles
Abuse and Neglect
What is really going on?
Mother
Caring
Valuing
Child
Cared for
Valued
Child/Self
Caring
Valuing
Child/Self
Cared for
Valued
What is really going on?
Abuse and Neglect
Withholding
(limited)
Contemptuous
(disgusted)
Deprived
(unsatisfied)
Contemptible
(disgusting)
Demanding
Unreasonable
Overwhelmed
Inadequate
Critical
Rejecting
anger
Crushed
Rejected
Hopeless
Powerful
Imposing
Bullying
Disempowered
Silenced
Bullied
What is really going on?
We tend to respond to people in the way we
anticipate they will treat us
A person enacting one pole of a RR procedure
may either:
1. Convey the feelings associated with the role
to others, in whom corresponding empathic
feelings may be elicited (identifying) or
2. Seek to elicit the reciprocating response in
the other’ (reciprocating)
But does it really matter?
Could we make the
argument that
modern medicine is
spending 30-50%
of its time, poorly
managing the
consequences of
abuse and neglect?
‘A ghost in the machine?’
Descartes –
‘substance’ ‘lead the
mind away form the
senses’
Demertzi et al 2009
Disorders of
Consciousness.
N=2100,
53% mind and brain
are separate
37% mind is
fundamentally physical
‘A ghost in the machine?’
There is a doctrine about the nature and place of the
mind which is prevalent among theorists, to which
most philosophers, psychologists and religious
teachers subscribe with minor reservations. Although
they admit certain theoretical difficulties in it, they
tend to assume that these can be overcome without
serious modifications being made to the architecture
of the theory.... [the doctrine states that] with the
doubtful exceptions of the mentally-incompetent and
infants-in-arms, every human being has both a body
and a mind. ... The body and the mind are ordinarily
harnessed together, but after the death of the body
the mind may continue to exist and function.
New Classifications
Higher order constructs
Less context dependant
Less vulnerable to change
Current FSS etc…
Absence of biological correlates /
points of rarity
MUS
Hypochondriasis
Medical Illness
Depression and
Anxiety
Somatoform
Disorders
Functional
Somatic
Syndromes
text
New Classifications
Complex Somatic Symptom Disorder
- health related anxiety
- disproportionate concerns
- excessive time and energy
Bodily Distress Syndrome
- cardiopulmonary
- musculoskeletal
- gastrointestinal
- general
What to do?
Metabolic syndrome – knowing what
to expect and what to do about it?
Can we make it that straightforward?
Expect and Enquire
CFS + IBS + FMA
NEAD / dissociation
Functional neurology
Pelvic / Abdominal / Vertebral Pain
Dysuria / retention symptoms
Dysmenorrhoea
Anxiety / depression
Start explaining and making the links
Avoid ‘cure’ discussions / treatments
Numbers needed to offend
Medically unexplained
Depression related
All in the mind
Stress related
Hysterical
Functional
Psychosomatic
Numbers needed to offend
DIAGNOSIS
All in the mind
Hysterical
Psychosomatic
Medically
unexplained
Depression related
Stress related
Functional
NNO
2
2
3
3
4
6
9
Don’ts
Tell them that there is nothing wrong.
Normalise. They are not normal for the patient.
Say it is all in your mind
Only reassure repeatedly
Tell them there is nothing you can do to help.
Give results of normal tests and reassure and think
that this alone will help.
Remove gall bladder, appendix, uterus, bowel, teeth
Prescribe dependence forming drugs
Retire them on grounds of ill-health
Do’s
Indicate that you believe the patient
Explain how symptoms occur
Explain what they don’t have
Explain what they do have
Emphasise that it is common
Emphasise that it is reversible
Emphasise that self-help is a key part of
making a recovery
Involve a carer and repeat the explanations
Be honest and use praise
Also
Metaphors may be useful
Brain playing tricks
Use written information
Get the family on side
Consider Anxiety / Depression
Use anti-depressant medication
CBT – often re-framed
Communicate and deal with the
system
Care Plan
Improving well-being
- relaxation / mindfullness
- 5 a day
- routine / pacing / structure / diary
Managing a crisis
- self-management / local support
- clear plans for primary and secondary care
Avoiding harm
- in-built review
- being clear that medicine can be harmful
- dealing with the system
- sharing information
- dependence forming drugs
Resources
Diaries
Self-management toolkit
Boom and bust graph
Mental Health 5 a day
Relaxation – CD
www.mentalhealth.org.uk
www.neurosymptoms.org
www.nonepilepticattacks.info
www.NEADtrust.co.uk
www.paintoolkit.org
London Pilot
227 patients from 3 practices (0.84%)
>£1M expenditure in 2 years
£307k in GP time alone
1/5 had in-patient treatment - £250k
Intervention (over one month)
Reduced GP contacts by 1/3 (258 vs
375)
Reduced investigations by 1/4 (54 vs
74)
Training GPs
Knowledge
Practice
Treatment
Services / commissioning
Aims
Be contentious
Explore current practice
Consider costs and prevalence
Empathy
Psychological Explanation
New classifications / way of thinking
General tips
A Service
Clear point of entry
One-stop-shop + Out-patients
Liaison Psychiatry formulation
CBT / GET
Hypnotherapy (IBS)
Mindfulness
Physiotherapy / OT
Pain / self management groups
Managing the system
Identify
>/= 10 attendances in 2 years
>/= 2 negative investigations in 2 years
the symptom does not fit with known
disease models or physiological
mechanisms
the patient is unable to give a clear and
precise description of the symptoms
symptoms seem excessive in
comparison to the pathology
Identify
symptoms occur in the context of a
stressful lifestyle or stressful life
events
patient attends frequently for many
different symptoms
the patient seems overly anxious about
the meaning of the symptoms and has
strongly held beliefs about a disease
process causing the symptoms
patient complains of pain in multiple
different sites
The End - Culture Change?
Is this how we will
be practicing
medicine with these
patients in 10 years
time?