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myHSN NHS Health Service Navigator website: What are examples of MUPS (medically unexplained physical symptoms)?

Discussion in 'UK clinics and doctors' started by Sly Saint, Mar 22, 2023.

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  1. Sly Saint

    Sly Saint Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    https://www.myhsn.co.uk/top-tip/what-are-examples-of-mups-medically-unexplained-physical-symptoms

    no reviews yet.
     
    Sly Saint, Mar 22, 2023
    #1
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  2. Trish

    Trish Moderator Staff Member

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    Is this for real? So patronising.
     
    Trish, Mar 22, 2023
    #2
    Simbindi, Hutan, alktipping and 7 others like this.
  3. Ariel

    Ariel Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Is there anything that can be done about this "medically unexplained" grouping tactic? It's unscientific, manipulative, and has caused a lot of harm.
     
    Ariel, Mar 22, 2023
    #3
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  4. RedFox

    RedFox Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    We need to stop twisting the meaning of words. Medically unexplained should mean medically unexplained and functional should mean functional.
     
    RedFox, Mar 22, 2023
    #4
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  5. John Mac

    John Mac Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    No, but we understand YOU a lot better now.
     
    John Mac, Mar 22, 2023
    #5
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  6. rvallee

    rvallee Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    You can almost feel the condescending pat on the head.
     
    rvallee, Mar 22, 2023
    #6
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  7. RedFox

    RedFox Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    It's disturbing that they list premenstrual syndrome.
     
    RedFox, Mar 22, 2023
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  8. EzzieD

    EzzieD Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    "...Many also have depression or anxiety. Therefore, treating the associated psychological problem can often relieve the physical symptoms."

    LOLwhat? How does that work, exactly?

    I would guess that most people, myself included, develop a degree of anxiety and depression as a result of becoming seriously physically ill and disabled with no cure available, and disbelief/derision being the default response by the doctors one goes to for help. It's an entirely normal reaction to having one's life destroyed. Do these people seriously believe that treating this "associated" normal reaction will relieve the physical symptoms?? I think my head just may explode at the utter stupidity...:eek:
     
    EzzieD, Mar 22, 2023
    #8
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  9. Sly Saint

    Sly Saint Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    other sections on mups on that website
    You searched for home - Health Service Navigator (myhsn.co.uk)

    includes
    What are medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPS)?

     
    Sly Saint, Mar 22, 2023
    #9
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  10. Amw66

    Amw66 Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Amw66, Mar 22, 2023
    #10
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  11. Hutan

    Hutan Moderator Staff Member

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    Nope, I'm utterly confused.

    They seem to be suggesting that some people have MUPS that don't fit into a syndrome (I'll call this group 'non-syndromic MUPS'). And some people have MUPS that are part of an as-yet poorly understood syndrome e.g. CFS ('syndromic MUPS'). They talk about a group that have depression or anxiety, but it's not clear if this group is meant to be a subset of non-syndromic MUPS, or is a group that overlaps both sorts of MUPS.

    They seem to suggest that, because some people have MUPS that don't fit into a specific syndrome and because many of them have depression or anxiety, it is possible to fix the physical symptoms by fixing an associated psychological problem. [That makes no sense at all - there is no logic there.]

    BUT, they seem to infer that people with a poorly understood syndrome, such as CFS, cannot be fixed in the same way.

    So, I'm not sure, but they may in fact be saying that CFS, IBS etc can't be fixed by treating a psychological problem. ?

    and then there's this, where 'somatic', which does indeed mean 'body' is somehow said to mean the same as psychosomatic, which it definitely does not.

    :confused: I suspect that the myHSN explanations are beyond the reach of logic. The only thing I'm sure of is, whatever the writer's intention, their meaning is not clear.
     
    Hutan, Mar 23, 2023
    #11
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  12. Trish

    Trish Moderator Staff Member

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    I've been looking a bit more at the website of My Healthservice Navigator. It seems to be a commercial site that makes its money from advertising and uses some NHS staff to provide content.

    I suspect this particular answer was a quick back of the envelope thing run up by either a busy NHS professional or some low paid jobsworth paid to answer questions and doing it with web searches. They might be better employing ChatGPT to answer questions for them.
     
    Trish, Mar 23, 2023
    #12
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  13. dratalanta

    dratalanta Established Member (Voting Rights)

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    As @Trish says this is a private business which aims to tell people "how to get the most out of the NHS" and uses NHS-like branding without any formal partnership.

    The root problem with this website's content seems to be the matching page on the NHS website: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/medically-unexplained-symptoms/ . The NHS uses the phrasing:
    Given the similarity of the two, I wouldn't be too sure AI wasn't involved in generating the content.

    As the main entry on the NHS website now refers to ME/CFS and calls it "a long-term condition with a wide range of symptoms" (as extensively discussed on another thread) and does not describe the condition as "medically unexplained", I think it might be reasonable to ask the NHS to take another look at their list of "poorly understood syndromes". The NHS might consider whether "poorly understood syndrome" is now a justifiable description of a condition with lengthy NICE guidance that says it is a "a complex, chronic medical condition affecting multiple body systems and its pathophysiology is still being investigated". "Still being investigated" is a long way from "poorly understood syndrome" in the sense meant by "medically unexplained", i.e. likely to remain unexplained and unexplainable.
     
    dratalanta, Mar 23, 2023
    #13
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