1 | Think of a patient with MUPS |
a. What are characteristics of this patient? | |
b. What are characteristics of the patient’s complaints? | |
2 | Regarding recognizing MUPS in your patients: |
a. Many doctors say that they know whether they are dealing with a patient with MUPS within a short time. What is your opinion and experience regarding this issue? | |
b. Some of the complaints that you almost instantly consider to be MUPS are indeed MUPS and some are not. When do you adjust your hypothesis? | |
c. Do hunches play a role in the recognition of MUPS? Or feelings that are evoked in you? If so, can you describe these hunches and feelings? | |
d. Does the background of the patient (or the story the patient tells with regard to his complaints) play a role in the recognition of MUPS? How and to what extent? | |
e. Does recognition depend on how much you can empathize with the patient or the complaint? Do you still consider it MUPS when you empathize? | |
f. Does the patient’s insight in social or psychological contributors to his complaints play a role in the recognition of MUPS? How and to what extent? | |
g. Does the quality of the physician-patient relationship play a role in the recognition of MUPS? How and to what extent? | |
h. Do you still consider it to be MUPS when a patient is agreeable and you like him? | |
3 | I would like to hear your opinion on the following statement: "Every doctor has his own type of MUPS patient". (Does the personality of the doctor influence the recognition of MUPS?) |
4 | Is there a difference, with regard to the recognition of MUPS, between patients who you have known for long time and patients you hardly know? |
5 | Are you able to distinguish different subgroups of patients with MUPS? How? |