I Know You Can't See It But It Hurts : A Research Study into the Experiences of Young People, Their Parents and Healthcare Professionals, Who Live and Work with Medically Unexplained Physical Symptoms

In this study I have explored first-person stories of young people, parents and healthcare professionals about their experiences of living and working with medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPS). MUPS claims large amounts of healthcare professionals’ time and technological resources in primary and secondary healthcare. As a consequence there has been an increasing amount of research interest in MUPS sufferers in recent years. However, few studies have explored the experience of MUPS sufferers from a social constructionist, dialogical and narrative epistemological standpoint. A cross-disciplinary review of the literature on MUPS revealed the experiences of young people and their families to be similar to those with a diagnosis of chronic illness and their families. A dearth of qualitative studies have explored the first-person accounts of young people, their parents, and healthcare professionals who live and work with the condition. Research aims were generated following the review of the literature: To explore the meanings that young people, their parents and healthcare professionals attach to their experience of MUPS in the absence of a medical diagnosis To explore stories constructed from these experiences by young people, their parents, and healthcare professionals about the impact of MUPS upon identity and significant relationships To discover the discourses and narrative templates that inform healthcare professionals’ practice with young people and their families who live with MUPS To identify cultural and institutional discourses and narrative templates from focus group members’ stories of experience; that position or marginalise MUPS sufferers and their families. The focus group method was chosen for data collection. Seven focus groups were held in a Paediatric Liaison Department (PLS) in a Regional Hospital in the East Midlands, U.K. Young people and parents were recruited to the focus groups from historical casework of the PLS Department. Healthcare professionals were recruited from the hospital ...