Understanding specialist treatment for people with PPS
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Understanding multidisciplinary treatment aimed at improving activity and participation in people with persistent physical symptoms: A focussed ethnography
IRAS ID
329363
Contact name
Hilary Lewis
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Leeds
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Why are we doing this research?
“Persistent physical symptoms” (PPS) describes a range of physical symptoms, such as pain and fatigue, that are not fully explained by a known physical disease. People with severe PPS may have symptoms lasting for years, causing difficulty leaving the home or looking after themselves.A multidisciplinary approach has been recommended – where different health professionals, such as physiotherapists, psychotherapists and occupational therapists, work together with the patient. Yet there are only a small number of multidisciplinary teams in the UK that specialise in treating people with PPS. Most people are seen in other services that have limited guidance for their work. We want to better understand how the specialist PPS teams provide treatment. We are interested in the parts of the multidisciplinary treatment that are not yet clearly described – in how these teams help people to carry out normal daily tasks and take part in the world around them.
What will we do?
A researcher will spend between 5-10 weeks in three different specialist PPS services. They will observe the treatment provided, focussing on the parts of treatment that help people re-engage with important daily activities. They will interview the patients to understand what they find most and least helpful. The health care professionals providing the treatment will also be interviewed, to help us understand what they believe makes treatment effective.What will we achieve?
We will have a better understanding of this specialist treatment, and what helps and hinders its delivery. This will be taken forward into another research study, where we will describe this treatment in a manual for other healthcare professionals. This manual could be shared with other services. It is hoped we could also use this manual to test whether this treatment does indeed help people, in a future research trial.REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/YH/0222
Date of REC Opinion
8 Nov 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion