A descriptive study of disability in patients presenting with medically unexplained physical symptoms in a medical OPD setting

INTRODUCTION: Medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPS) are quite common in the primary care setting. These unexplained symptoms lead to physical, psychological, and functional disability increasing patient and caregiver distress. METHODOLOGY: Cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 100 patients attending medicine outpatient department. The data on sociodemographic profile and detailed clinical history were collected. Disability was assessed using the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 instrument. Association between qualitative measures was measured by Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test and for qualitative measure t-test or Wilcoxon test was used. RESULTS: Most of the patients were young, from urban settings and belonging to lower socioeconomic strata. A mean of 6.54 symptoms per patient was presented with headache as the most common symptom. Average gross disability score in each domain was 1.6 with a major impact on the social and lifestyle-related domain. CONCLUSION: Patients with MUPS have significant disability especially in the domain of mobility and lifestyle-related activities. The disability is more in females, population dwelling in urban settlements, and population belonging to lower socioeconomic status.