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

Sly Saint

Sly Saint

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
What are examples of MUPS (medically unexplained physical symptoms)?

Many people with medically unexplained symptoms have symptoms such as described above that do not fit into a specific syndrome. Many also have depression or anxiety. Therefore, treating the associated psychological problem can often relieve the physical symptoms.

For others, the symptoms may be part of a poorly understood syndrome, such as:

  • Infection
    • Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) – also known as ‘ME’ (Myalgic encephalomyelitis)
    • Long COVID?
  • Gastroenterology
    • Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
  • Rheumatology
    • Fibromyalgia (pain all over the body)
  • Respiratory
    • Hyperventilation syndrome
  • Renal
    • Loin-pain haematuria syndrome
  • Neurology
    • Tension headaches
    • Non-epileptic attack (pseudoseizure)
  • ENT
    • Globus hystericus
  • Obs and Gynae
    • Premenstrual syndrome
  • Dentistry
    • Temporomandibular disorder (TMD)
    • Atypical facial pain
  • Unknown
    • Food allergy
    • Multiple chemical sensitivity
    • Gulf war syndrome
    • Sick building syndrome.
The fact that doctors are unable to find a cause of symptoms is not unusual in medicine, and it does not mean that nothing can be done to help you.

Summary

We have described what are examples of MUPS (medically unexplained physical symptoms). We hope you understand them better now.
Click to expand...
https://www.myhsn.co.uk/top-tip/what-are-examples-of-mups-medically-unexplained-physical-symptoms

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

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What are medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPS)?
Terminology

The term medically unexplained physical symptoms is synonymous to older terms such as:

  • Somatic (meaning ‘body’) or psychosomatic illness or disease
  • Somatisation or somatoform disorder
  • Conversion disorder
  • Functional disorder.
The plethora of terms reflects imprecision and uncertainty in their definition, controversy, and care taken to avoid stigmatising affected people.

Common medically unexplained symptoms include:

  • Pains in the muscles or joints
  • Back pain
  • Headaches
  • Tiredness
  • Feeling faint
  • Chest pain
  • Heart palpitations
  • Stomach problems
  • Symptoms of UTI but no proven infection the urine.
What is the mechanism of MUPS?

This is unknown. This is a possible mechanism. It has been suggested that people who have anxiety or depression or who focus excessively on their body might be particularly prone to these symptoms.

How can that happen? Anxiety and depression can cause physical symptoms that make depression and anxiety worse, and these can in turn make the physical symptoms worse, creating a vicious circle.

urn:cambridge.org:id:binary:20180507083629670-0483:S135551460000554X:S135551460000554X_fig2g.jpeg
Possible mechanism of MUPS
Click to expand...
 
We have described what are examples of MUPS (medically unexplained physical symptoms). We hope you understand them better now.
Click to expand...
Nope, I'm utterly confused.

Many people with medically unexplained symptoms have symptoms such as described above that do not fit into a specific syndrome. Many also have depression or anxiety. Therefore, treating the associated psychological problem can often relieve the physical symptoms.

For others, the symptoms may be part of a poorly understood syndrome, such as:

  • Infection
    • Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) – also known as ‘ME’ (Myalgic encephalomyelitis)
Click to expand...
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. ?

The term medically unexplained physical symptoms is synonymous to older terms such as:
  • Somatic (meaning ‘body’) or psychosomatic illness or disease
Click to expand...
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.
 
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.
 
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:

Possible causes of medically unexplained symptoms
Many people with medically unexplained symptoms, such as tiredness, pain and heart palpitations, also have depression or anxiety.
Treating an associated psychological problem can often relieve the physical symptoms.
For others, the symptoms may be part of a poorly understood syndrome, such as:
The fact that doctors are unable to find a condition causing these symptoms isn't unusual in medicine, and it doesn't mean that nothing can be done to help you.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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