Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39827116›Full record

ArticleBMC medical education2025

Improving general practitioners' approaches to functional somatic syndromes: a pilot training program with a focus on compassion and communication.

Gonthier Ariane, Linder Audrey, Sommer Johanna, Despland Jean-Nicolas, Ambresin Gilles

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Article in BMC medical education, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

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1citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

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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

5 authors.

Gonthier ArianeInstitute of Psychosomatic and Psychosocial Medicine for Romandie (IMPPRo), Lausanne, Switzerland.
Linder AudreySchool of Health Sciences (HESAV), University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES-SO), Lausanne, Switzerland.
Sommer JohannaInstitute of Psychosomatic and Psychosocial Medicine for Romandie (IMPPRo), Lausanne, Switzerland.
Despland Jean-NicolasInstitute of Psychosomatic and Psychosocial Medicine for Romandie (IMPPRo), Lausanne, Switzerland.
Ambresin GillesInstitute of Psychosomatic and Psychosocial Medicine for Romandie (IMPPRo), Lausanne, Switzerland. gilles.ambresin@chuv.ch.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundFunctional somatic syndromes are common in primary care and represent a challenge for general practitioners (GPs), with a risk of deterioration in the doctor-patient relationship, and of compassion fatigue on the part of the physician. Little is known about how to teach better management of these symptoms.

methodsThe aim of our scientific team was to develop a training session about functional somatic syndromes for GPs, with the objective to improve the therapeutic attitude of the participants. The first session of the training was constructed as a pilot session, followed by a qualitative study to complete content validation. The educational framework of the training session is multimodal and includes theory on the pathophysiology of functional somatic syndromes, communication skills, and introspective learning including an introduction to compassion meditation. 20 physicians attended the pilot training session. 10 of them participated in the qualitative study. The qualitative study consisted of five individual semi-structured interviews and one focus group of five persons, investigating the impact of the training session on the clinical practices, as perceived by the participants. The interviews were analysed through an inductive method inspired by Malterud's systematic text condensation strategy.

resultsWe identified three main themes in the responses of the participants: (1) the crucial issue of putting a name to chronic psychosomatic suffering; (2) the importance of self-compassion for physicians; (3) changes in therapeutic attitude fostering a reconciliation between "self" and "care". Participants expressed a need for more regular meetings of this type. The opportunity to share their negative feelings about therapeutic relationship within a peer group, with compassionate supervision of the trainers, seemed to play an important role in the improvement of their self-compassion

conclusionA multimodal teaching session seems to help the physicians to feel more comfortable and competent when treating patients with functional somatic syndromes. Including compassion meditation in the teaching seems a promising tool to prevent compassion fatigue.

Indexed as

CommunicationEducation, Medical, ContinuingEmpathyGeneral PractitionersSomatoform DisordersAdultAttitude of Health PersonnelCompassion FatigueFemaleFocus GroupsHumansInterviews as TopicMaleMiddle AgedPhysician-Patient RelationsPilot ProjectsCompassion meditationFunctional somatic syndromesMedical educationMedically unexplained symptomsPsychosomatic teaching

Identifiers

PMID39827116
PMCPMC11742205

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