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Successful Psychological Strategies of Experienced Chronic Fatigue Patients: A Qualitative Study

Trying to care for patients with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) can lead to frustration and disappointment for both patients and health care professionals alike. Learning positive ways to assist patients avoids professionals collapsing into therapeutic nihilism. We sought to understand how peo...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hall, Katherine H, Amos, Claire, Jaye, Chrystal, Young, Jessica
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8358485/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34395851
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/23743735211034962
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author Hall, Katherine H
Amos, Claire
Jaye, Chrystal
Young, Jessica
author_facet Hall, Katherine H
Amos, Claire
Jaye, Chrystal
Young, Jessica
author_sort Hall, Katherine H
collection PubMed
description Trying to care for patients with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) can lead to frustration and disappointment for both patients and health care professionals alike. Learning positive ways to assist patients avoids professionals collapsing into therapeutic nihilism. We sought to understand how people with such symptoms can live well despite (or even because of) their condition. Chronic fatigue was chosen as the exemplar symptom. Participants were invited to join the research if they, themselves, considered they were living well with this symptom. One-on-one interviews using an appreciative enquiry approach were performed and thematic analysis undertaken. Twelve participants were interviewed before data saturation occurred. The emotional stance or relationship a participant had with, and towards, their illness was the primary determinant underlying their interpretation of “living well.” Five major themes of this meta-theme were identified: (1) engaging with elusiveness, (2) befriending uncertainty, (3) reflecting on self, (4) living creatively, and (5) moving in stillness. Encouraging patients who are struggling with MUS to consider how they emotionally engage with their illness via these 5 positive dynamics may lead to better health outcomes for patients and happier, more fulfilled health care professionals.
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spelling pubmed-83584852021-08-13 Successful Psychological Strategies of Experienced Chronic Fatigue Patients: A Qualitative Study Hall, Katherine H Amos, Claire Jaye, Chrystal Young, Jessica J Patient Exp Research Article Trying to care for patients with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) can lead to frustration and disappointment for both patients and health care professionals alike. Learning positive ways to assist patients avoids professionals collapsing into therapeutic nihilism. We sought to understand how people with such symptoms can live well despite (or even because of) their condition. Chronic fatigue was chosen as the exemplar symptom. Participants were invited to join the research if they, themselves, considered they were living well with this symptom. One-on-one interviews using an appreciative enquiry approach were performed and thematic analysis undertaken. Twelve participants were interviewed before data saturation occurred. The emotional stance or relationship a participant had with, and towards, their illness was the primary determinant underlying their interpretation of “living well.” Five major themes of this meta-theme were identified: (1) engaging with elusiveness, (2) befriending uncertainty, (3) reflecting on self, (4) living creatively, and (5) moving in stillness. Encouraging patients who are struggling with MUS to consider how they emotionally engage with their illness via these 5 positive dynamics may lead to better health outcomes for patients and happier, more fulfilled health care professionals. SAGE Publications 2021-08-06 /pmc/articles/PMC8358485/ /pubmed/34395851 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/23743735211034962 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Research Article
Hall, Katherine H
Amos, Claire
Jaye, Chrystal
Young, Jessica
Successful Psychological Strategies of Experienced Chronic Fatigue Patients: A Qualitative Study
title Successful Psychological Strategies of Experienced Chronic Fatigue Patients: A Qualitative Study
title_full Successful Psychological Strategies of Experienced Chronic Fatigue Patients: A Qualitative Study
title_fullStr Successful Psychological Strategies of Experienced Chronic Fatigue Patients: A Qualitative Study
title_full_unstemmed Successful Psychological Strategies of Experienced Chronic Fatigue Patients: A Qualitative Study
title_short Successful Psychological Strategies of Experienced Chronic Fatigue Patients: A Qualitative Study
title_sort successful psychological strategies of experienced chronic fatigue patients: a qualitative study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8358485/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34395851
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/23743735211034962
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