It is not currently known when in the consultation GPs label symptoms as medically unexplained and what triggers this. The combined insight into how and when GPs recognise MUS in the consultation is important, as it can help proper recognition of MUS, may prevent unnecessary diagnostic and treatment procedures, and gives an insight into the GPs’ thought processes. This study found that the mean time until GPs labelled symptoms as medically unexplained was about 4 minutes for newly presented symptoms and 2 minutes for symptoms for which the patients had visited the GP before. Triggers for diagnosing MUS were knowing the patient as someone with MUS, the way the patient presented their symptoms, symptoms not fitting into a specific medical pattern, the patient attributing the symptoms to the psychosocial context, and discrepancy between symptom presentation and objective findings. This suggests that non-analytical reasoning was a central component in the GPs’ thought processes. |