An exploratory study of primary-care therapists' perceived competence in providing cognitive behavioural therapy to people with medically unexplained symptoms

Abstract

AbstractThe scope of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) initiative has been extended to include the treatment of medically unexplained symptoms (MUS). However, MUS was not one of the original common mental health problems that the therapists were trained to treat. No studies have explored whether primary-care cognitive behavioural therapists feel competent to treat people with MUS. This paper aimed to explore and gain an understanding of primary-care therapists’ perceived competence in providing cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to people with MUS. Eight CBT therapists working in primary care participated in semi-structured interviews; the Framework approach was used to analyse the data. Five themes were generated by the data analysis, regarding the therapists’ perceived competence. The therapists described unfamiliarity with MUS. They also described some issues in engaging clients in therapy and that progress in therapy could sometimes be slow. Participants often used more general CBT skills and techniques, rather than models and interventions designed specifically for MUS. They had a number of different emotional reactions to this work. CBT therapists in primary care described unfamiliarity with MUS, in comparison to common mental health problems. They identified some difficulties in treatment, but most did not see this group as being more complex to treat. All were interested in receiving training about this client group.