Author's reply

EDITOR,—Crispin Jenkinson's sweeping dismissal of patients' symptoms is perhaps explained by his seclusion in an academic health services research unit. The “measure yourself medical outcome profile” (MYMOP) is designed as a tool for primary care, and my experience as a general practitioner shows that symptoms are patients' expressions of their problems. Because the MYMOP allows patients to express those symptoms in their own words it is not, as Jenkinson suggests, a “medicalised approach,” which …