The PRINCE Secondary Study: Persistent Physical Symptoms Reduction Intervention: a System Change and Evaluation in Secondary Care

Background and study aims In primary care between 20 and 40% of patients have medically unexplained physical symptoms. The term medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) is commonly used by health care professionals. However a survey of a healthy population and a separate survey of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) suggested that the term persistent physical symptoms (PPS) was the preferred term. The term PPS may have its drawbacks, but it will be used in the rest of this document to cover MUS as well as any other terms that may be used in the literature and clinical settings to refer to these symptoms. In secondary care, about 50% of patients have PPS, in many specialties. PPS are associated with profound disability and high health care costs. Around 50% of sufferers have co-morbid anxiety and depression and sleep problems. Left untreated, the prognosis of these patients is poor.

This study is a pragmatic RCT that will evaluate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy + standard medical care (CBT+SMC), which involves 8 sessions of CBT, versus standard medical care (SMC) in the treatment of patients with PPS.

Who can participate? Patients with various PPS, such as fibromyalgia, non-cardiac chest pain, irritable bowel syndrome and a range of neurological symptoms e.g., weakness will be recruited. Participants will be recruited from clinics in secondary care (e.g., neurology, cardiology, rheumatology) at various hospitals in London.

What does the study involve? Potential participants will be identified by clinical staff who will refer them to the research team. Patients who give their consent to take part in the study will complete a number of questionnaires asking about their symptoms and use of health care services, and about their thoughts, feelings, and beliefs related to their PPS (i.e., baseline). This will take approximately 1.5 hours. After this research assessment, half of participants will be randomly assigned to the treatment arm (CBT+SMC), or to the control (SMC) arm. Participants in the treatment arm will receive 8 individual sessions of CBT (weekly or fortnightly sessions). The therapy aims to help the patient develop an understanding of the relationship between cognitive, physiological and behavioural aspects of their problem; to understand factors that may be maintaining the problem and to learn how to modify their behavioural and cognitive responses in order to improve their quality of life. Participants in the SMC group will receive usual medical care within the clinic.

Participants in both arms will also be asked to complete questionnaires at 9, 20, 40, and 52 weeks after randomisation. The assessment will be independent of the health care professionals delivering care.