Patient experiences in multidisciplinary care for persistent somatic symptoms across four European countries: a cross-sectional comparison 2025 Mamo+

Rosmalen is also a listed author.

Abstract

Objectives
The aim of this study is to explore patients with persistent somatic symptoms and functional disorders’ (PSS/FD) experiences of and preferences for multidisciplinary care across Europe. A further aim is to compare the experiences of and preferences for multidisciplinary care of patients to those of healthcare professionals (HCPs) in the Netherlands.

Design
Cross-sectional online survey.

Setting
Patients with PSS/FD from across Europe (Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland) and HCPs working in the care for PSS/FD across all levels of care in the Netherlands.

Primary and secondary outcome measures
Outcome measures for both patients and HCPs related to experiences of multidisciplinary care, communication between professionals and patients, as well as the main point of contact for patients.

Results
600 patients responded (Germany: n=198; Italy: n=174; Netherlands: n=137; Poland; n=91), and 152 HCPs responded from the Netherlands. Compared with the other countries, patients from the Netherlands generally received less multidisciplinary care, from fewer disciplines. Regarding most variables related to interprofessional communication, patients in Italy rated their experience significantly better than in most other countries. Generally, patients preferred either their general practitioner (GP) or a medical specialist as their main point of contact, and not mental health professionals. In contrast, HCPs preferred mental health professionals as the main point of patient contact, followed by GPs. In all variables, patients in the Netherlands rated interprofessional communication significantly lower than HCPs in the Netherlands did.

Conclusions
Patients have different experiences of interdisciplinary communication, also reporting lower-quality communication than HCPs, though differences are seen between countries. Future studies should look at the reasons for this and how this can lead to improved care for PSS/FD.

Open access

 

Patients want medical help, the medical professionals want to pawn them off to mental health workers.

 

Hence why studies like this are entirely useless. They don't hear what they want to hear, so they pretend otherwise, having zero interest in doing anything different. All they want is to manipulate data so that it appears like they're hearing what they like. Decades of this loop and they're still unwilling to change.