IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v21y2024i7p901-d1432419.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Somatoform Disorders in Primary Care—An Exploratory Mixed-Methods Study on Experiences, Challenges and Coping Strategies of General Practitioners in the Federal Republic of Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Julian Wangler

    (Centre for General Medicine and Geriatrics, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Am Pulverturm 13, 55131 Mainz, Germany
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Michael Jansky

    (Centre for General Medicine and Geriatrics, University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Am Pulverturm 13, 55131 Mainz, Germany
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

Abstract

Somatoform symptoms are widely spread in outpatient care. For treating physicians, it can be challenging to establish a relationship that is conducive to compliance and to take stabilising action when dealing with affected patients. As primary care providers, GPs are usually the first point of contact for patients with somatoform disorders; they set the course for stabilisation and further care. To date, there is a lack of studies that focus on how GPs respond to such patients. In particular, strategies for establishing a stable doctor–patient relationship have hardly been explored. Consequently, this study investigated how GPs recognise the symptoms of somatoform disorders, what significance they attach to them and how they handle patients. The primary focus is on experienced patient properties, assumed causes of somatoform disorders, obstacles and complexities in consultation, care and stabilisation strategies, as well as diagnostic forms of support. A total of 2797 GPs in the German federal states of Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg were surveyed anonymously by means of a written questionnaire between January and August 2023. A t-test was performed with independent samples to determine significant differences between two groups. In addition, 64 GPs were interviewed between March and April by means of qualitative semi-standardised interviews. The respondents make use of a wide range of communication and stabilisation strategies when treating somatoform physical complaints. The GPs combine the establishment of a tangential doctor–patient relationship with measures to consistently exclude physical causes and to enable the best possible assessment of patients, as well as to gently introduce them to the clinical picture of somatoform disorders. Most physicians are not familiar with current clinical guidelines. Cooperation with specialists and therapists is widely described as complicated. GPs have access to a wide range of communication and stabilisation strategies for the management of somatoform physical complaints. Yet, they experience interaction with this patient group as difficult in daily practice. GPs articulate a clear need for more external support. Apart from increasing therapeutic care capacities and interdisciplinary structures, it seems advisable to extend low-threshold therapy and support services.

Suggested Citation

  • Julian Wangler & Michael Jansky, 2024. "Somatoform Disorders in Primary Care—An Exploratory Mixed-Methods Study on Experiences, Challenges and Coping Strategies of General Practitioners in the Federal Republic of Germany," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(7), pages 1-13, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:7:p:901-:d:1432419
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/7/901/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/7/901/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sandeep Grover & Jitender Aneja & Akhilesh Sharma & Rama Malhotra & Sannidhya Varma & Debasish Basu & Ajit Avasthi, 2015. "Do the various categories of somatoform disorders differ from each other in symptom profile and psychological correlates," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 61(2), pages 148-156, March.
    2. Dan Guo & Maria Kleinstäuber & Malcolm Henry Johnson & Frederick Sundram, 2019. "Evaluating Commonalities Across Medically Unexplained Symptoms," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-7, March.
    3. Ruediger Leutgeb & Sarah Berger & Joachim Szecsenyi & Gunter Laux, 2018. "Patients with somatoform disorders: More frequent attendance and higher utilization in primary Out-of-Hours care?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(8), pages 1-13, August.
    4. Trudy van der Weijden & Monique van Velsen & Geert-Jan Dinant & Cathelijne M. van Hasselt & Richard Grol, 2003. "Unexplained Complaints in General Practice: Prevalence, Patients' Expectations, and Professionals' Test-Ordering Behavior," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 23(3), pages 226-231, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Michiel Tack, 2019. "Medically Unexplained Symptoms (MUS): Faults and Implications," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-3, April.
    2. Ring, Adele & Dowrick, Christopher F. & Humphris, Gerry M. & Davies, John & Salmon, Peter, 2005. "The somatising effect of clinical consultation: What patients and doctors say and do not say when patients present medically unexplained physical symptoms," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(7), pages 1505-1515, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:7:p:901-:d:1432419. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.