General practitioners' responses to the initial presentation of XXXX : a quantitative analysis.

@entity1 @entity1109
BACKGROUND: Physicians in primary and secondary care are frequently confronted with @entity1 with @entity1109 ( @entity1109 ). In order to solve their @entity1 ' problems and out of a fear of overlooking a serious disease, many physicians give their @entity1 full physical examinations and interventions, thereby incorrectly confirming the somatic nature of their condition. Preventing somatization could be achieved by examining the @entity1 's symptom presentation for clues to underlying psychosocial issues and by an appropriate physician response. METHODS: Ninety-seven videotaped medical visits from primary care @entity1 presenting @entity1109 for the first time were analyzed. @entity1 ' presentations were categorized in: (1) symptoms only; (2) symptoms with a clue to an underlying concern; or (3) symptoms with an explicit concern. General practitioners' (GPs') responses to @entity1 ' presentation were classified into ignoring or more or less exploring responses. Exploring responses were further subdivided in non-directional explorations, clue explorations and medical explorations. RESULTS: Results show that most @entity1 presented their symptoms together with a reference to an underlying concern. Yet, most of them did so in an implicit way. GPs usually explored the concern presented by the @entity1 , but most often in a medical way only. CONCLUSION: To address the potential psychological basis of @entity1 ' @entity1109 , GPs should pay more attention to the specific clues @entity1 present to them. Likewise, in order to receive full attention, @entity1 should try to present their concerns more explicitly.
