Medically Unexplained Physical Symptoms in Children: Exploring Hospital Staff Perceptions

Furness, Penny; Glazebrook, Cris; Tay, Jasmine; Abbas, Kirsty; Slaveska-Hollis, Karmen

doi:10.1177/1359104509338437

Cited by 17 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 30 publications

(35 reference statements)

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“…This is a key area because social interactions are likely to contribute towards the configuration of illness perception among patients with MUS [15]. Furthermore, greater knowledge and research on MUS in young people is required [16], especially studies that investigate relational aspects [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social participation in young people with nonepileptic seizures (NES): A qualitative study of managing legitimacy in everyday life

Karterud

Haavet

Risør

2016

Epilepsy & Behavior

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This qualitative study explores social participation in young people with non-epileptic seizures (NES), particularly how legitimacy of illness is managed in everyday life.Young people with NES, all females and aged between 14 and 24 years (N =11), were interviewed and followed up over a 14-month period. The transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis.Four main themes were elaborated: 1) Delegitimizing experiences from families, schoolteachers, colleagues and employers were part of everyday life. 2) Fear of being exposed to delegitimizing events resulted in the young people trying to conceal the diagnosis; for some this resulted in isolation from all social arenas, apart from with their closest relationships. 3) Support from close relationships was protective against delegitimization and contributed towards greater social participation. 4) Perceiving NES as a legitimate disorder contributed to increased social participation.We found a relationship between legitimacy of illness experienced by the participants and the extent to which they either participated or retreated socially. Those who had an illness perception that was personally meaningful experienced their condition as being more legitimate and participated more socially.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social participation in young people with nonepileptic seizures (NES): A qualitative study of managing legitimacy in everyday life

Karterud

Haavet

Risør

2016

Epilepsy & Behavior

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“…HCPs reported feeling that children and young people have complex and demanding needs, but suggested they were uncertain how best to deliver appropriate care to families on busy hospital wards (Furness et al . ). In particular, HCPs appeared to feel that a lack of time and training prevented them from delivering tailored and specialised care (Furness et al .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…In particular, HCPs appeared to feel that a lack of time and training prevented them from delivering tailored and specialised care (Furness et al . ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Families' and healthcare professionals' perceptions of healthcare services for children and young people with medically unexplained symptoms: a narrative review of the literature

Hinton

Kirk

2015

Health Soc Care Community

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Children and young people frequently report physical complaints that have no observable physical pathology known as medically unexplained symptoms (MUS). Research suggests that MUS are associated with substantial physical and psychological impairments and may have a negative impact on children's and young people's functional status and well‐being in the long term. Due to the potentially complex needs of this group, children and young people with MUS may require timely access to suitable health and social care services to effectively manage symptoms and achieve their academic, social and personal potential. Families and professionals can offer important insights into the availability and appropriateness of current community and specialist health and social care services. This review is the first critical evaluation and synthesis of research that has examined families' and healthcare professionals' (HCP) perceptions of healthcare services for children and young people with MUS. A systematic search of electronic databases and manual searches of key journals and reference lists identified 17 papers from 15 studies for inclusion in the review. The review highlights the paucity of rigorously conducted research on this topic. Studies have been narrowly focused on the views of a homogeneous group of mothers and young people attending single centres. There has been some attempt to examine doctors' views, but the perceptions of children, fathers and health and social care professionals are absent or under‐represented, and multi‐site and longitudinal studies are lacking. Thematic analysis of the results from the included studies suggests that knowledge, communication, health beliefs and healthcare settings are factors that influence families' and HCPs' perceptions of services. Families report dissatisfaction with some HCPs' approach to managing MUS. The findings suggest that children and young people with MUS are at risk of receiving suboptimal care and support because there is insufficient research to inform high‐quality, evidence‐based practice.

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“…To this purpose, future studies should aim to include tertiary care specialists as well as other health professionals working in the area of MUS [76]. Differences between specialities and between traditions of biomedicine in different cultural contexts should also be explored, as others have shown potentially important variations based on region and culture [77] [78].…”

Section: Directions For Further Research and Trainingmentioning

confidence: 99%

What's ‘difficult’? A multi-stage qualitative analysis of secondary care specialists' experiences with medically unexplained symptoms

Maatz¹,

Wainwright

Russell

et al. 2016

Journal of Psychosomatic Research

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Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-pro t purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. AbstractBackground The term 'difficult' is pervasively used in relation to medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) and patients with MUS. This article scrutinises the use of the term by analysing interview data from a study of secondary care specialists' experiences with and attitudes towards patients suffering from MUS.

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Medically Unexplained Physical Symptoms in Children: Exploring Hospital Staff Perceptions

Cited by 17 publications

References 30 publications

Social participation in young people with nonepileptic seizures (NES): A qualitative study of managing legitimacy in everyday life

Social participation in young people with nonepileptic seizures (NES): A qualitative study of managing legitimacy in everyday life

Families' and healthcare professionals' perceptions of healthcare services for children and young people with medically unexplained symptoms: a narrative review of the literature

What's ‘difficult’? A multi-stage qualitative analysis of secondary care specialists' experiences with medically unexplained symptoms

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