Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38835003›Full record

ArticleBMC medical education2024

What are medical students taught about persistent physical symptoms? A scoping review of the literature.

Catie Nagel, Chloe Queenan, Chris Burton

Abstract readScoping Review
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in BMC medical education, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Catie NagelPrimary Care Research Group, Division of Population Health, School of Medicine, University of Sheffield, Regent Court, 30 Regent Street, S1 4DA, Sheffield, UK. c.nagel@sheffield.ac.uk.
Chloe QueenanPrimary Care Research Group, Division of Population Health, School of Medicine, University of Sheffield, Regent Court, 30 Regent Street, S1 4DA, Sheffield, UK.
Chris BurtonPrimary Care Research Group, Division of Population Health, School of Medicine, University of Sheffield, Regent Court, 30 Regent Street, S1 4DA, Sheffield, UK.

Funding

NIHR School for Primary Care Research NIHR301019
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundPersistent Physical Symptoms (PPS) include symptoms such as chronic pain, and syndromes such as chronic fatigue. They are common, but are often inadequately managed, causing distress and higher costs for health care systems. A lack of teaching about PPS has been recognised as a contributing factor to poor management.

methodsThe authors conducted a scoping review of the literature, including all studies published before 31 March 2023. Systematic methods were used to determine what teaching on PPS was taking place for medical undergraduates. Studies were restricted to publications in English and needed to include undergraduate medical students. Teaching about cancer pain was excluded. After descriptive data was extracted, a narrative synthesis was undertaken to analyse qualitative findings.

resultsA total of 1116 studies were found, after exclusion, from 3 databases. A further 28 studies were found by searching the grey literature and by citation analysis. After screening for relevance, a total of 57 studies were included in the review. The most commonly taught condition was chronic non-cancer pain, but overall, there was a widespread lack of teaching and learning on PPS. Several factors contributed to this lack including: educators and learners viewing the topic as awkward, learners feeling that there was no science behind the symptoms, and the topic being overlooked in the taught curriculum. The gap between the taught curriculum and learners' experiences in practice was addressed through informal sources and this risked stigmatising attitudes towards sufferers of PPS.

conclusionFaculties need to find ways to integrate more teaching on PPS and address the barriers outlined above. Teaching on chronic non-cancer pain, which is built on a science of symptoms, can be used as an exemplar for teaching on PPS more widely. Any future teaching interventions should be robustly evaluated to ensure improvements for learners and patients.

Indexed as

Chronic PainCurriculumEducation, Medical, UndergraduateStudents, MedicalFatigue Syndrome, ChronicHumansChronic painMedically unexplained symptomsNarrative synthesisPersistent physical symptomsScoping reviewUndergraduate

Identifiers

PMID38835003
PMCPMC11151618

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.