Coping with patients with medically unexplained symptoms: work-related strategies of physicians in primary health care.

• General practitioners (GPs) often meet patients with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS). From a patient perspective, MUS is a well-acknowledged problem within the primary health care services today, but less is known about the GPs' perceptions. This study aims to elucidate GPs' perceptions of patients with MUS, focusing on stressing situations, emotional reactions and coping strategies. Twenty-seven physicians participated in focus-group discussions. In the analysis, where a phenomenographic approach was used, six situations were identified as being especially stressful in the encounter with these patients. The GPs described how they used both problem-focused and emotion-focused strategies, but with emotion-focused strategies slightly dominating, indicating that the GPs had difficulties in managing their own stress when working with patients with MUS.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Folkhälsovetenskap, global hälsa, socialmedicin och epidemiologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Adaptation

Psychological

Adult

Anxiety

Appointments and Schedules

Attitude of Health Personnel

Behavioral Symptoms

Diagnosis

Differential

Emotions

Female

Focus Groups

Humans

Male

Middle Aged

Physician-Patient Relations

Physicians

Family

psychology

Primary Health Care

methods

Problem Solving

Rural Health Services

Social Perception

Sweden

Work Capacity Evaluation

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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