Many people have experienced a situation where they have felt an inexplicable pain in some part of their body for weeks on end, or feel particularly tired lately. So you go to the doctor, who may give you a test or two, but can’t find the cause of these symptoms. Despite a dizzying array of high-tech medical tests, the reality is that many symptoms, such as fatigue and headaches, have no explanation. In most cases, patients are relieved after their doctors rule out the possibility of a major illness. However, other patients are still plagued by mysterious symptoms and go back to the doctor again and again, fearing that they may have some malady that the doctor has not detected. Now, for patients who are plagued by medically unexplained symptoms, some family physicians and internists are using treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy and relaxation therapy to help them see these symptoms in a different light. This reflects the fact that giving too much attention to such symptoms usually makes the patient feel worse. The goal of this type of treatment is to teach patients to make peace with their symptoms and to see them as harmless, or even to ignore them. Recent studies have shown that this type of treatment can reduce symptoms and ease the worries that come with those symptoms (which may be just as important). Robert C. Smith, professor of medicine and psychiatry at the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, says some patients with medically unexplained symptoms who visit their doctors almost once a month may have underlying psychological problems that trigger these symptoms and “doctor-seeking” behavior. These symptoms, he said, “are red flags of an underlying mental illness,” such as depression or anxiety. Dr. Smith and colleagues have developed a treatment for first-time patients. It includes antidepressants and removes narcotic painkillers that can cause depression to worsen, supplemented by relaxation therapy, exercise and other methods.