Complementary and alternative medicine for functional gastrointestinal disorders
Dyspepsia means indigestion but is used as an umbrella term for symptoms (regurgitation after meals, early satiety, pain or burning sensation localized to the epigastrium) thought to originate in the stomach or duodenum. This is very common in Sweden - Swedish surveys report that the prevalence of dyspepsia over a three-month period was 19% and 'ever' occurred in 37%. Several studies have shown that the prevalence of dyspepsia decreases with increasing age. Because it is often difficult for the patient to say when the symptoms started, incidence figures are often uncertain and difficult to interpret.
In Östhammar, a survey was conducted after one year to determine how many previously symptom-free people reported that dyspeptic disorders had started during that year. Thus, it was calculated that the one-year incidence of reflux symptoms was 0.2% and of functional dyspepsia 1.4%. If these new cases included those who already had GI symptoms but were experiencing dyspeptic symptoms for the first time, the annual incidence was 2.6%.
Patients with GI symptoms are a large and resource-intensive group. Many patients seek medical attention for their symptoms and are often investigated without a definite cause being identified. Investigations can be extensive and are often repeated as there is no agreed investigation process. Even worse is the anxiety that many patients experience when they are repeatedly examined without receiving any clear information about the cause or effective treatment. In a study in Tierp, 1.6% of the adult population visited a doctor for dyspepsia in one year. Of these, 1/3 made more than one visit and 1/10 more than two per year. Younger women showed the highest frequency of visits. This is consistent with international data, according to which about 2% of all visits to general practitioners are due to dyspepsia. In summary, the total annual cost of patients with dyspepsia has been estimated at SEK 3.7- 4.4 billion.
As dyspepsia symptoms are often long-lasting and recurrent, many dyspepsia patients use self-care methods to find relief from their symptoms themselves. Few have studied this. What methods are used for self-care and how is the effect of the various methods perceived should therefore be interesting from a research point of view. Studying self-care in dyspepsia could lead to finding strategies for self-care, when and how different methods can be used for relief. This saves the patient a lot of suffering and worry while it can be a social effort in the form of fewer doctor visits.
Objective, method
To use focus group interviews with dyspepsia patients to study self-care for dyspeptic disorders, which methods are used and how the effect is perceived.
Researchers
Kerstin Stake-Nilsson, University of Gävle
This page was last updated 2025-01-13