The effects of a structured communication tool in patients with medically unexplained physical symptoms: a cluster randomized trial 2023 Abrahamsen

[Midnattsol]

The thing with hours worked is that on sickleave in Norway you can be on 50% sickleave but have 100% attendance, you just do less in the workplace. I’m not quite sure in what type of job this works but that’s the idea at least.

 

[Utsikt]

It really is extraordinary stuff. They seem quite upfront about presenting a non-evidenced based story to explain the patient's condition. I don't know how that gets through an ethics committee.

It was even given an award:

The evaluation committee for the travel grant consisted of Anette Fosse, Anja Brænd and Trygve Skonnord. They write this in the justification for the award:

"Based on her own practice and her own perceived inadequacy towards a common patient group, the prize winner has developed a structured conversation tool that she is exploring the effect of in her PhD project. The results of the intervention are convincing, with effects on function, symptoms, quality of life and sick leave, and the study was published in a highly ranked international journal. The project has obvious general medical relevance, maintains high quality and originality, and the prize winner has a good ability to pedagogically communicate the tool and the research."

Vestfold-fastlege belønnet med pris for samtaleverktøy-forskning

Fastlege og forsker Cathrine Abrahamsen får Allmennmedisinsk forskningsfond (AMFF) sitt reisestipend 2024 for prosjektet der hun har testet det egenutviklede samtaleverktøyet ICIT i en randomisert studie. Høy kvalitet og originalitet på forskningen, mener pris-juryen.

www.legeforeningen.no

Does anyone in Norway know if this laminated manual with its 'deliberately created' story is still in use?

It’s very much in use. Abrahamsen is in the news what feels like every month and I think the latest number from earlier this year was that >40 % of GPs have been through her course, and some of the counties appear to be offering it to all their GPs.

The thing with hours worked is that on sickleave in Norway you can be on 50% sickleave but have 100% attendance, you just do less in the workplace. I’m not quite sure in what type of job this works but that’s the idea at least.

Yes, the sick leave refers to productivity, not hours spent in the workplace.