Medically Unexplained Symptoms Flashcards
What are medically unexplained symptoms?
Physical symptoms not explained by organic disease which causes distress and impairs function. Strong link to psychological factors such as stress. Symptoms are produced by unconscious mechanisms.
What are functional symptoms?
Symptoms which affect the body physically, such as joint pain without a neurological condition.
What is a dissociative-conversion disorder?
Pseudo-neurological symptoms. Includes disassociative disorder which is disconnection from identity and thoughts, Conversion disorder which is physical symtpoms which mimick neurological such as paralysis or sensory loss like deafness or blindness with an acute onset.
What is psychosomatic illness?
Psychological disorder which manifests as physical sensation
What is hypochondriasis?
Excessive worry about illness
What is illness behaviour?
Behaviour associated with adjusting to perceived physical or mental illness
What is illness denial?
Engaging in inappropriate illness behaviour to ignore illness and continue as if you are healthy.
What is illness affirmation?
Engaging in inappropriate illness behaviour to exxagerate illness and reducing your mobility intentionally.
Why is medically unexplained symptom term important?
Allows patient to assume sick role, reduces stigma of mental illness and can act as a physical expression of distress
What is a possible cause of medically unexplained symptoms?
Minor pathology exaggerated during stress, psychological caused by stressful life events.
What contributes of medically unexplained symptoms?
Vulnerability factors like genetics, overinterpreting symtpoms to be catastrophic, care seeking behaviours due to early insecure attachment
How can childhood contribute to medically unexplained symptoms?
When ill during childhood, a neglected child may receive more support and this can lead to unconscious manifestation in adulthood. Or, illness in childhood exempted them from distressing situaition like bullying which led to that response in adulthood to avoid stressful situation like work.
What is the biopsychosocial model of medically unexplained symptoms?
Minor pathology is exacerbated by illness, or caused by stress or a hangover. The congitive response of interpreting it as an illness is due to childhood factors and personality. It may be maintianed iatrogenic.
What is iatrogenic?
Illness caused/maintained by external cause, like the reaction of others or medical intervention.
What is the impact of MUS on society?
High health care costs, high societal costs due to time off work, and persistent medically unexplained symptoms can be disabling.
What is the risk of diagnosis?
Low proprotions have misdiagnosis and a low proportino were found to have an organic disease.
How can medically unexplained symptoms be identified?
Symptoms are unclear and don’t fit with known disease models, excessive compared to pathology, linked to stressful life sevents, patient is overly anxious about the meaning and attends frequently with different symptoms.
How can MUS be assessed?
Determining the current stress in a patient’s life, what they think is the cause, perform physical examination, identify co-exisitng mental illness.
How can MUS be managed?
Help patient cope witn syomptoms. Ackowledge the symptoms, avoid invalidating it as in the mind, provide clear explanation about the investigation which is tailored to the patient and avoid referral. Analgesics can be used, promote self efficacy and psychotherapy.
How can controversies be intepreted in medically unexplained symptoms?
It is an umbrella term used to describe psychological manifestation of distress. Heterogenous variation in severity and presentatipn of symtpoms
How can MUS be interpreted for patients?
Contextualise for patients through an analogy like a computer and make it clear that it will get better- avoid invalidation
Which personality traits contribute to MUS?
Anxiety and neuroticism and negative affect
