Primary care can be very effective in managing physiological explainable symptoms but unfortunately this remains very variable. Improvements in this area could be highly cost-effective17.
Persistent symptoms can respond to NICE-approved psychological treatments available through IAPT; extension of these services will have ‘knock-on’ effects through primary, community and secondary care.
More complex cases are treated in specialist services where these exist. However liaison psychiatry and linked psychology service availability is uneven.