Non-specific health problems (headache, muscle tension, fatigue, dizziness, unstability)
(http://www.frontiersin.org/10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.10.00143/event_abstract) find almost all of us, but rarely and not so intensively. Do you know a scientific results regarding the different complaints, at which frequency/intensity should someone visit the GP?
Only when the subject experience it very disturbing or scary? Or if it comes x times in y long period?
It is also important, because complementary medicine is thought to work effectively in these non-specific complaints, and I wonder, at which point should a CAM practitioner include a medical doctor in the healing process?
It is also important, because for the mild complaints, various self-helper interventions (forms of self-soothing and self-compassion) were adviced as potential solution, and I wonder, when someone should go to the doctor, to exclude that it is not the case of a serious illness, better to heal with conventional medicine asap.
In childhood, parents makes these decisions based on their own experience. With age, a person acquires his or her own experience as to what complaints go away on their own and what don't. While gaining that experience, why not have the family doctor check it out - it speeds up self-education.
Dear Mary, thanks for your answer! I can understand this model of subjective development of decision-making system on complaints. This kind of decision making based on childhood experiences seems biased and potentially leading either to overuse of health care or to fatally late diagnosis of a disease. My question is still open, if there is any scientific result or guide on how to distinguish 'everyday complaints' that go away on their own, and (early) signs of a medical condition, that should be diagnosed and treated asap.
Put it in another way, if you are a psychotherapists or complementary practitioner, till which severity of physical complaints of you client is it ethical not to recommend to visit a GP?
HI Benedek,
Do not have any "scientific" citations to recommend unfortunately, however as a general guide I would use the following, if your symptoms interfere with your daily functioning, you have to exert unusual of excessive effort to complete your daily tasks, your symptoms affect your relationships, interest in or ability to pursue interests I would explore conventional avenues of help. Typically, in clinical practice it is recommended to rule out (serious) medical/physical illness before or in combination with other forms of interventions.
Hope this helps.
Valeriya
Hello,
I guess it might be interesting to look at the question from another point of view: can there be such a general guide? What would it tell us? That there is an objective threshold that distinguishes "benign intensity or frequency" from "pathological intensity or frequency". And this has to be considered individually. Concerning psychopathology, you will find these for example in the DSM, indicating which threshold applies to which psychopathology. The same is true for somatic disorders. So we fall on our feet again as it were: every clinician must know his field of intervention thoroughly enough in order to establish an argumented diagnostic hypothesis, to evaluate symptoms severity, and then to make a therapeutic decision, for example adress to a GP.
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