Discovering strengths in patients with medically unexplained symptoms – a focus group study with general practitioners

BACKGROUND: When patients suffer medically unexplained symptoms, consultations can be difficult and frustrating for both patient and GP. Acknowledging the patient as a co-subject can be particularly important when the symptoms remain unexplained. One way of seeing the patient as a co-subject is by recognizing any among their strong sides. OBJECTIVES: To explore GPs’ experiences with discovering strengths in their patients with medically unexplained symptoms and elicit GPs’ reflections on how this might be useful. METHODS: Four focus-groups with 17 GPs in Norway. Verbatim transcripts from the interviews were analyzed by systematic text condensation. RESULTS: Recollecting patients’ strengths was quiet challenging to the GPs. Gradually they nevertheless shared a range of examples, and many participants had experienced that knowing patients’ strong sides could make consultations less demanding, and sometimes enable the GP to provide better help. Identifying strengths in patients with unexplained symptoms required a deliberate effort on the GPs’ behalf, and this seemed to be a result of a strong focus on biomedical disease and loss of function. CONCLUSIONS: KEY POINTS: MUS is challenging for both patients and GPs mainly because of the incongruence between symptoms and the dominating biomedical model. GPs’ focus on pathology and loss of function can prevent them from discovering patients’ strengths. Awareness of patients’ strengths can make consultations less demanding for GPs and enable them to provide better help. A conscious effort is needed to discover patients’ strengths.