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Illness explanations among patients with medically unexplained symptoms: different idioms for different contexts
1Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark. mettriso@rm.dk
Health (London, England : 1997)
|August 22, 2009
Summary
Patients with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) use diverse explanatory idioms beyond just physical causes. These personal, social, and moral explanations are crucial for meaning-making, especially when medical diagnoses are lacking.
Area of Science:
- Medical Sociology
- Psychosomatic Medicine
- Qualitative Health Research
Background:
- Medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) patients often face limited explanations focused solely on physical causes.
- Research indicates patients with MUS utilize broader explanatory frameworks for their health experiences.
- Understanding these diverse patient explanations is vital for effective healthcare.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze the social construction of illness explanations in patients with MUS.
- To explore how explanatory idioms are influenced by context (space, time, setting).
- To understand the legitimization process of different illness explanations.
Main Methods:
- Qualitative study employing repeated, semi-structured interviews.
- Involved nine informants over a 1.5-year period.
- Thematic content analysis conducted on a pragmatic and phenomenological basis.
Main Results:
- Identified four distinct explanatory idioms: symptomatic, personal, social, and moral.
- All idioms contribute to patients' meaning-making processes in daily life.
- The symptomatic idiom dominates clinical settings, yet others gain importance due to diagnostic uncertainty.
Conclusions:
- Patients with MUS utilize multiple, context-dependent explanatory idioms.
- A discrepancy exists between healthcare providers' bio-psycho-social models and patients' lived experiences.
- Recognizing these diverse idioms can improve patient-centered care for MUS.
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