About 5% of the European population report symptoms for which the doctor cannot find a medical cause that sufficiently explains their symptoms, even after adequate medical examinations. These Medically Unexplained Physical Symptoms (MUS) are f.e. chronic fatigue, dizziness, abdominal discomfort, chronic lower back pain or non-cardiac chest pain.
MUS represent 20-40% of the caseload of doctors and are one of the most expensive diagnostic categories in Europe.
The crucial challenges in MUS intercultural doctor-patient communication are differences in perspectives, values and beliefs about illness. MUS as well as intercultural doctor-patient communication (IC) gets not enough emphasis in undergraduate and postgraduate medical teaching in European countries despite the weight of the problem in healthcare.
