BMJ  2004;328:1319-1320 (29 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7451.1319-b

Letter

Do patients with unexplained physical symptoms pressurise GPs for somatic treatment?

Summary of rapid responses

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—The qualitative study by Ring et al on whether patients with unexplained symptoms pressurise their doctors for treatment together with the accompanying editor's choice provoked a strong response.^{1 2} The main criticism levelled at both is that none of the authors is a general practitioner and therefore cannot speak with authority.

Second comes the acknowledgment that there are indeed patients who are difficult and a drain on doctors, although the term "heartsink" is met with scepticism. The idea that hospital consultants might not treat the patients in question any better is also mooted, especially as general practitioners have the edge on other doctors in consultation skills because of their training.

Some correspondents report terrible cases in which a diagnosis was missed and caused unspeakable suffering. Some predict that time and budgetary constraints are a serious obstacle now and will be even more of a hindrance in years to come. . . . [Full text of this article]

BMJ

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Relevant Article

Do patients with unexplained physical symptoms pressurise general practitioners for somatic treatment? A qualitative study

Adele Ring, Christopher Dowrick, Gerry Humphris, and Peter Salmon
BMJ 2004 328: 1057. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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Unexplained physical symptoms? - No problem!

Jean P Fisher
bmj.com, 2 Jun 2004 [Full text]

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