Medically unexplained symptoms (somatisation, hypochondriasis, conversion disorder) Flashcards
Define functional symptoms.
Complex problems in the body with no detectable structural or physiological cause
What % of consultations in GP are due to MUS?
Up to 20%
Why is MUS important?
Associated with unnecessary costs and hospitalisations
Affects all ages
Investigation can cause harm
UK cost of MUS exceeds £3.1 billion each year
Define MUS.
Persistent bodily complaints for which adequate examination doesn’t reveal sufficient explanatory structural or other specific pathology
What are the main three categories of MUS symptoms?
- Pain in different locations
- Functional disturbance of organ systems
- Complaints of fatigue and exhaustion
What is the general criteria for diagnosing MUS?
- Physical symptoms
- For 3 months
- Affecting functioning
- Cannot be readily explained
Psychological and physical factors are often key, not just psychological.
Rather than mind and body, what is a more useful classification of MUS?
Functional vs structural
Whereby functional is MUS. Medically unexplained can seem like a psychiatric issue (i.e. it’s all in the person’s head) and like not enough investigations can be done, when actually we know a lot about MUS/functional symptoms
Cartesian mind-body dualism is not useful
Which MUS is CBT useful in?
- Chronic fatigue syndrome
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Chronic pain
- Multiple somatisation disorder
What are the risk factors for MUS?
- Long term conditions associated with anxiety/depression
- Childhood adversity/abuse
- More common in women
- In severe cases overlap with personality disorder
- Recent infection, current physical illness, severe illness or death of close relative
What % of patients with MUS go on to have an organic explanation for their presentation?
4-10%
75% remain unexplained at 1 year
What % of patients with MUS have a coexistent psychiatric disorder?
30% (but could be 10-80%)
How do patients and doctors with MUS often feel?
Patients:
- Very strong feelings
- Disbelieved and accused of fabricating symptoms
Doctors:
- Doctors feel challenged about competence
- They get called different negative terms - “frequent fliers”, “heart sink”
Physical disorders are seen as real and patients as victims, psychiatric disorders as ‘not real’ and patients responsible for symptoms
What do patients say is the most useful and important factors in their recovery?
Whether the diagnosis and explanation they were given made sense to them – perhaps not immediately, but eventually.
What are the key parts of the explanation of MUS?
- You have something common – you are not weird
- You do have something genuine – you are not imagining it
- You have symptoms that are potentially reversible
- It’s not your fault that you have these symptoms
- But you will need to put some effort into getting better
Compare and contrast the somatoform disorders.
Somatization Disorder – patients believe they have been sickly most of their lives, complain of multitude of symptoms referred to numerous organ systems. Great concern about symptoms.
Conversion Disorder (now seen as dissociative symptoms) – loss of function, characterized by signs or symptoms inconsistent with what is known about anatomy and pathophysiology. Patients usually only have one symptom almost always neurological. They sometimes appear surprisingly unconcerned about their condition
Hypochondriasis – patient will believe, or strongly suspect, that they are ill with a very serious disease. Minor symptoms or anomalies support or augment their concern. The concern persists despite reassurance by doctors. Not so much concerned with the symptoms but the implied terrible and undiagnosed disease.
What is somatisation disorder AKA?
Briquet’s Syndrome
How common is somatisation disorder? Who is it more common in?
Lifetime prevalence is 0.1-0.2%
F:M 5-20-:1
Usually onset in teens (<30yrs)
What are some theories for the aetiology of somatisation?
Biological: there is some evidence for faulty processing of sensory inputs in patients with this disorder. Genetics: 10 – 20 % 1st degree relatives
Psychosocial: a form of communication or as substitutions for repressed instinctual urges.
- The Sick Role (Parsons)
- Illness Behaviour (Mechanic/Pilowsky)
- Alexithymia – no words for moods
- Culture / Family experience – early learning/attentional gain
- Environment – secondary gain
What do you call the lack of concern about the patients’ condition in conversion disorder?
La Belle indifference - a casual disregard for normally alarming symptoms
Describe the usual onset of somatisation disorder.
- Gradually fall in in teenage years (onset past 30 years is rare)
- Common initial complaints are headache, dysmenorrhoea, abdominal pain
What are the features of symptoms of somatisation disorder? What parts of the body are usually affected?
Multiple, recurrent and frequent changing
- Patients are vague or dramatic, giving vague accounts and moving from one organ system to another
- Have seen many doctors and hospitalized many times
- Patients often fatigued, weak all over, plagued with headaches, dizzy spells and pain in the chest, heart beats wildly and dyspnea can occur
- Pains in arms and legs, the back and many joints
- Vague and poorly localized abdominal pain, nausea and bloating, constipation, irregular painful or heavy menstruation
How do you manage somatisation disorder in a GP setting?
- Establish long-term relationship with one clinician
- Schedule regular follow ups e.g. every month
- Consider psychiatric consultation, group therapy or CBT
- +/- antidepressants for those with depressive symptoms
- Gradual and managed increase in exertion
What is the prognosis of somatisation disorder?
Often chronic, presents at least once a year and a new symptom occurring when stressed
What is the management of chronic fatigue syndrome?
- Combination of psychological and antidepressant treatment
- Gradual and managed increase in exertion
