Medically Unexplained Symptoms (MUS): Faults and Implications

Michiel Tack
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Michiel Tack: Independent researcher, Sint-Laurentiusstraat 87, 9700 Oudenaarde, Belgium

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 7, 1-3

Abstract: The classification of medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) could have negative consequences for patients with functional somatic syndromes (FSS). By grouping related but distinct syndromes into one label, the MUS classification fails to inform clinicians about their patients’ health condition. In research settings, the MUS classification makes patient samples more heterogeneous, obstructing research into the underlying pathology of FSS. Long-term studies have shown that MUS are often appraised as medically explained symptoms at follow-up and vice versa, raising doubts about the reliability of this distinction.

Keywords: medically unexplained symptoms (MUS); functional somatic syndromes (FSS); chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS); fibromyalgia; somatic symptom disorder (SSD) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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