TY - JOUR T1 - A comparison of emergency department presentations for medically unexplained symptoms in frequent attenders during COVID-19 JF - Clinical Medicine JO - Clin Med SP - e399 LP - e402 DO - 10.7861/clinmed.2020-1093 VL - 21 IS - 4 AU - Natasha F Daniels AU - Raiiq Ridwan AU - Ed BG Barnard AU - Talha M Amanullah AU - Catherine Hayhurst Y1 - 2021/07/01 UR - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/21/4/e399.abstract N2 - Medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) are those with no identified organic aetiology. Our emergency department (ED) perceived an increase in MUS frequency during COVID-19. The primary aim was to compare MUS incidence in frequent attenders (FAs) during COVID-19 and a control period.A retrospective list of FA-MUS presenting to our ED from March to June 2019 (control) and March to June 2020 (during COVID-19) was compared. Fisher's exact test was used to compare binomial proportions; this presented as relative risk (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (95%CI).During COVID-19, ED attendances reduced by 32.7%, with a significant increase in the incidence of FA-MUS and FA-MUS ED visits compared to control; RR 1.5 (95%CI 1.1–1.8) p=0.0006, and RR 1.8 (95%CI 1.6–2.0), p<0.0001, respectively.Despite reduced ED attendances during COVID-19, there was a significant increase in the incidence of FA-MUS patients and corresponding ED visits by this cohort. This presents a challenge to ED clinicians who may feel underprepared to manage these patients effectively. ER -