Use of the Individual Challenge Inventory Tool (ICIT) by General Practitioners
Condition: Medical Unexplained Physical Symptoms (MUPS); Subjective Health Complaint
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Many patients in general practice present symptoms that do not refer to specific pathology.
      We refer to these patients at Medical Unexplained Physical Symptoms (MUPS). Practice and
      research have well documented that these patients frustrate most General Practitioners (GPs).
      They also produce a lot of unnecessary investigations and are overrepresented on
      sick-listing. The conversational tool Individual Challenge Inventory Tool (ICIT) offers an
      aid for the GPS to the consultation and aims to increase the patients' coping abilities with
      their health challenges. The aim of the study is to investigate whether patients experience
      such increased coping following a session of consultations with their GP based on ICIT.
    

Detailed description: 
      The study is a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial (cRCT) with GPs as clusters. We plan to
      includ 50 GPs to participate as intervention group and 50 GPs as controls. Each cluster will
      include 10 patients. GPs in the intervention group will be trained in the use of ICIT through
      a 30 hours course, partly digital and partly in presence. The participants will receive
      lectures on the background for the conversation tool, and the study, and will practice on
      each other. At the end of the study, also the 50 GPs of the control group will be invited to
      an identical course.

      The outcome of the study is any changes of the patients coping abilities. If the symptoms
      cannot be healed, a goal for the patients will be to reduce the impact of the symptoms. In
      practice, this is to reuptake normal activities, including work, in spite of pain, fatigue or
      mood disturbances. Through the ICIT, the patients will be challenged to look at themselves in
      a broader spectrum and decide for themselves which activities are possible to reuptake and
      making a thorough plan for doing so.

      The patients will be treated by their regular GP across several meetings and they will agree
      on a specific plan across weeks or months to achieve their individual goal.

      The patients of the GPs in the control group will represent identical medical symptoms and
      will be treated and followed by their GP as usual. They will, however, be informed and asked
      to consign to participate in the study, and will respond to the same questionnaires as the
      patients in the intervention group.
    

Intervention name(s): ICIT
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Patients in the intervention group will receive a number of consultations with their GP based on the ICIT
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Single Group Assignment
Intervention model description: Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial with an intervention group and a control group
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Supportive Care
Keywords: MUPS, SHC, sick leave, Communication tool, General practice