2019
Medically unexplained physical symptoms in patients visiting the emergency department
Publication
Publication
An international multicentre retrospective study
European journal of emergency medicine : official journal of the European Society for Emergency Medicine , Volume 26 - Issue 4 p. 249- 254
Objective The objective of this study was to assess the
incidence and characteristics of patients presenting with
physical symptoms that remain medically unexplained at
the emergency department (ED).
Patients and methods A retrospective chart study
was carried out in three hospitals in The Netherlands and
Belgium. All patients (age>18 years) visiting the ED in 4
selected weeks in 2013 at the Erasmus University Medical
Center (Erasmus MC) in Rotterdam, The Netherlands,
and 1 selected week in 2013 at the Haaglanden Medical
Center, Westeinde HMC in The Hague, The Netherlands,
and the University Hospital Ghent (UZG), Belgium,
were included. Descriptive statistics were used for data
analysis.
Results A total of 2869 patients (Erasmus MC
1674, HMC 691, UZG 504) were included. Medically
unexplained physical symptoms in the emergency
department (EDMUPS) were present in 13.4% of all
ED visits (Erasmus MC 12.5%, HMC 18.7%, UZG 9.1%).
No EDMUPS were identified in trauma patients. When
excluding trauma patients, EDMUPS were present in
18.5% (Erasmus MC 16.8%, HMC 26.5%, UZG 13.3%) of
the visits. The characteristics of patients with and without
EDMUPS differed significantly; patients with EDMUPS
were more often younger, female, self-referred, frequent
visitors, were prescribed less medication and more often
had a psychiatric disease. Dutch and Belgian Hospital
differed in the distribution of patients in triage categories
and in the incidence of psychiatric illnesses.
Conclusion Physical symptoms remain unexplained
in a significant number of patients at the time of ED
assessment.
Additional Metadata | |
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doi.org/10.1097/mej.0000000000000536, hdl.handle.net/1765/119371 | |
VSNU Open Access deal | |
European journal of emergency medicine : official journal of the European Society for Emergency Medicine | |
Organisation | Department of Internal Medicine |
Alsma, J., van de Wouw, J., Jellema, K., Coffeng, S.M., Tobback, E., Delesie, L, … Weiland, A. (2019). Medically unexplained physical symptoms in patients visiting the emergency department. European journal of emergency medicine : official journal of the European Society for Emergency Medicine, 26(4), 249–254. doi:10.1097/mej.0000000000000536 |