Summary
We investigated the clinical features and incidence of ICD-10 Somatoform Disorders (SD) in an outpatient population from general hospitals. Outpatients were first screened with the Screener for Somatoform Disorder (SSD). Those SSD-positive were further examined with the Somatoform Disorder Schedule (SDS). A total of 3346 outpatients were screened. The estimated incidence of SD in outpatients was 18.2%. SD outpatients went to see doctors 13.1 times on average in the past 12 months, and 60% of them reported being unchanged or even worse after treatments. Overlaps among the subtypes of SD were observed. Thirty-six outpatients with SD also met the criteria for neurasthenia. The frequency of the symptom groups of somatization disorder, from the most to the least, appeared in the following order: (1) dissatisfied with the doctors’ diagnosis and treatments; (2) weakness; (3) biological symptoms such as sexual symptoms; (4) pain symptoms; (5) gastrointestinal symptoms, vegetative, and conversion symptoms. The incidence of SD is rather high in the outpatient population of general hospitals. Outpatients with SD go to see doctors very frequently, but most of them are dissatisfied with the diagnoses and treatments.
The research was part of a WHO International Study of Somatoform Disorders, organized by Dr. A. Janca
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© 1999 Springer-Verlag Tokyo
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Meng, F. et al. (1999). Preliminary Research on the Clinical Features of Somatoform Disorders in Three General Hospitals. In: Ono, Y., Janca, A., Asai, M., Sartorius, N. (eds) Somatoform Disorders. Keio University Symposia for Life Science and Medicine, vol 3. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-68500-5_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-68500-5_19
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