Specific collaborative group intervention for patients with medically unexplained symptoms in general practice: a...

Area of Science:

• Primary care
• Mental health
• Psychosomatic medicine

Background:

• Medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) are common in primary care, significantly impacting patients' quality of life (QoL).
• General practitioner (GP) training alone has shown limited sustained improvement for MUS patients.
• This study evaluated a collaborative group intervention for managing MUS.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the effectiveness of a collaborative group intervention compared to standard GP training for patients with MUS.
• To determine the impact on physical and mental quality of life (QoL) at 6 and 12 months post-intervention.

Main Methods:

• A cluster randomized controlled trial involving 35 GPs and 304 MUS patients.
• Intervention group GPs received training in a collaborative group intervention, conducting weekly sessions with a psychosomatic specialist.
• Quality of life (QoL) was measured using the Short-Form 36 (SF-36), assessing physical composite score (PCS) and mental composite score (MCS).

Main Results:

• At 12 months, the intervention group showed a significant improvement in mental composite score (MCS) (p = 0.023).
• Somatic symptom severity significantly decreased at 6 months (p = 0.008) but not at 12 months.
• The intervention group experienced reduced health anxiety (p = 0.038), less psychosocial distress (p = 0.024), and fewer GP visits (p = 0.042).

Conclusions:

• Collaborative group intervention led to progressive, clinically meaningful improvements in mental QoL for MUS patients, unlike GP training alone.
• Physical QoL did not show significant improvement.
• This intervention model shows promise for integrating general practice and mental health care.