Trust, belief and transitions: people’s experiences of multidisciplinary inpatient treatment for persistent physical symptoms. A qualitative study

Purpose People with Persistent Physical Symptoms experience physical symptoms that are not wholly explained by a medical disorder or disease. Multidisciplinary treatment is recommended for people with severe difficulties and is provided in a small number of specialist centres in the UK. Only brief descriptions of this treatment are available, and the experiences of people receiving this treatment as an inpatient have not been explored. This study aimed to explore how people with persistent physical symptoms experience inpatient treatment from a specialist multidisciplinary team, and to identify which factors facilitated their engagement in the rehabilitation.

Materials and Methods 18 people who had received inpatient multidisciplinary treatment for persistent physical symptoms participated in semi-structured interviews. The transcripts were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.

Results Participants’ experiences were influenced by whether they felt believed by the healthcare team, and whether they could place their own trust and belief in the staff team and the treatment approach. Their experiences involved a series of transitions; both in environment and understanding.

Conclusions Improvements are possible for people receiving inpatient multidisciplinary treatment for severe PPS. Trusting relationships between patients and staff members take time to develop but play a major role in patients’ experiences of treatment.