ArticlePerspectives on medical education2012
Encounters between medical specialists and patients with medically unexplained physical symptoms; influences of communication on patient outcomes and use of health care: a literature overview.
Article in Perspectives on medical education, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 43 citations in OpenAlex.
- Trial
- Learning in the moment: simulated patients' engagement in students' meaningful learning during communication training-a stimulated recall study.Advances in simulation (London, England) · 2025Article
- Talking About Barriers to Disease-Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drugs: Content Analysis of Audio-Recorded Routine Clinical Visits of Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis.Patient preference and adherence · 2025Article
- Article
- An interdisciplinary multimodal integrative healthcare program for depressive and anxiety disorders.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Article
- Epistemological and methodological paradoxes: secondary care specialists and their challenges working with adolescents with medically unexplained symptoms.International journal of mental health systems · 2018Article
- An introduction for the treatment and educational strategy of medically unexplained symptoms in Denmark.Journal of general and family medicine · 2017Article
- Can training in empathetic validation improve medical students' communication with patients suffering pain? A test of concept.Pain reports · 2017Article
- Article
- How do hospital doctors manage patients with medically unexplained symptoms: a qualitative study of physicians.Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine · 2017Article
- "It´s incredible how much I´ve had to fight." Negotiating medical uncertainty in clinical encounters.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2017Article
- Patient-Provider Communication With Older Adults About Sleep Apnea Diagnosis and Treatment.Behavioral sleep medicineArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPS) burden patients and health services due to large quantities of consultations and medical interventions. The aim of this study is to determine which elements of communication in non-psychiatric specialist MUPS care influence health outcomes. Systematic search in PubMed, PsycINFO and Embase. Data extraction comprising study design, patient characteristics, number of patients, communication strategies, outcome measures and results. Elements of doctor-patient communication were framed according to symptoms, health anxiety, satisfaction, daily functioning and use of health care. Eight included studies. Two studies described the effect of communication on patient outcome in physical symptoms, three studies on health anxiety and patient satisfaction and one study on daily functioning. Two studies contained research on use of health care. Qualitative synthesis of findings was conducted. Communication matters in non-psychiatric MUPS specialist care. Perceiving patients' expectations correctly enables specialists to influence patients' cognitions, to reduce patients' anxiety and improve patients' satisfaction. Patients report less symptoms and health anxiety when symptoms are properly explained. Positive interaction and feedback reduces use of health care and improves coping. Development of communication skills focused on MUPS patients should be part of postgraduate education for medical specialists.
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