Picariello Federica, Ali Sheila, Moss-Morris Rona, Chalder Trudie
King's College London, United Kingdom; South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, United Kingdom.
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, United Kingdom.
J Psychosom Res. 2015 May;78(5):420-426. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2015.02.013. Epub 2015 Feb 27.
Medically unexplained symptoms/syndromes are common, highly distressing and are often associated with profound disability. One of the controversies surrounding this area relates to which umbrella term should be used to group such symptoms. The purpose of this research was to establish the preferences of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) for an umbrella term for medically unexplained symptoms.
A cross-sectional mixed methods survey design was used. Participants were asked to indicate their three most preferred terms out of a list of commonly used terms and to provide any extra comments. Frequency analysis was employed to look at the preferences of terms for each rank. Comments were analysed using principles of inductive thematic analysis.
Eighty-seven patients with CFS completed a self-report survey. The term "Persistent Physical Symptoms" was the most popular first choice term chosen by 20.7% of patients. Terms containing the word "physical" were consistently more likely to be chosen. Three main themes emerged from the thematic analysis: 1) Physical nature of the illness, 2) Stigma, and 3) Evaluation of the terms, giving a more in-depth understanding of the findings.
According to CFS patients, an umbrella term has to reflect the physical experience of MUS.
医学上无法解释的症状/综合征很常见，令人极度痛苦，且常常与严重残疾相关。围绕这一领域的争议之一是应该用哪个统称来对这类症状进行归类。本研究的目的是确定慢性疲劳综合征（CFS）患者对于医学上无法解释的症状的统称的偏好。
采用横断面混合方法调查设计。要求参与者从一系列常用术语中指出他们最喜欢的三个术语，并提供任何额外的评论。采用频率分析来研究每个排名的术语偏好。使用归纳主题分析原则对评论进行分析。
87名CFS患者完成了一项自我报告调查。“持续性身体症状”是最受欢迎的首选术语，20.7%的患者选择了该术语。包含“身体”一词的术语始终更有可能被选中。主题分析得出了三个主要主题：1）疾病的身体性质，2）耻辱感，3）对术语的评价，从而对研究结果有了更深入的理解。
根据CFS患者的说法，一个统称必须反映医学上无法解释的症状的身体体验。
