Clinical trial NCT02349256: Somatoform Disorder in British South Asians
Official title: Somatoform Disorder in British South Asians - What Are the Patients' Views?
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Conditions: Somatic Syndrome Disorder
Keywords: MUS
British South Asians
Somatic Symptoms
Qualitative interviews
Lead sponsor: Global Health Primary Care Research and Innovation and Network
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: University of Manchester
First posted: 2015-01-28
Enrollment: 16
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Observational model: CASE_ONLY
Time perspective: CROSS_SECTIONAL
Sampling method: PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Men and women self ascribed British South Asian Origin .

Brief summary: The study uses in depth interviews to understand their experience of somatoform disorder, possible explanations and their experience of somatoform disorder, possible explanations and their understanding of treatments, especially their ideas about psychosocial treatments.

Detailed description: "Somatoform" or "functional" syndromes are those that present with physical symptoms, not explained by well-recognized medical illness. Such symptoms are common in all settings and studies have reported that they accounted for one-fifth of all new presentations in primary care. Literature suggests that they are associated with significant levels of psychological distress, disability, impairments in quality of life and high levels of healthcare utilization. Research also suggests that medically unexplained symptoms cause similar (or higher) levels of disability than medically explained symptoms in primary care settings. There have been a number of studies that have looked at the cognitive and behavioural basis of somatisation, and treatment strategies have been trialed based upon a cognitive behavior therapy (CBT)-led approach for these patients.

In British South Asian patients the difficulties in managing this condition are further compounded as culture can have an important role in shaping the experience, interpretation \& clinical presentation of emotional distress. Patel reported that GPs found it very challenging to manage South Asian patients with chronic pain due to the way they present with pain, and a greater likelihood of psychosomatic presentations. Language differences as well as cultural differences contributed to the challenges, especially among first- generation South Asians. Further, they felt that self-management strategies were difficult to address. The author concludes by saying 'cultural influences play an important role in the consultation process where patients' behaviour is often bound in their cultural view of health care. (South Asian) patients' presentation of their condition makes diagnosis difficult but can also lead to miscommunication'.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Men and women of self-ascribed British South Asian origin.
* Over the age of 18 years.
* Able to understand spoken and written English and/or Urdu, Gujarati.
* Able to provide written informed consent.
* Registered with the GP practice.
* criteria for somatoform disorder (determined by PHQ15).

Exclusion Criteria:

* individuals with diagnosed physical or learning disability
* any form of psychosis.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Qualitative Interview
timeFrame: 1
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Blackburn
country: United Kingdom
facility: Shifa Surgery
Study officials:
affiliation: Research Manager
name: Saif Bhojani
role: STUDY_CHAIR
References: