[Antidepressants and somatic disease]

Depression is the most frequent psychiatric disease associated with chronic somatic disorders. Diagnosis, however, is frequently difficult to make, due on one hand to the presence of symptoms that depression and chronic somatic disorders have in common, and on the other hand to the assumption shared by the physician and its patient that depression is a normal reaction to a somatic illness. Accurate diagnosis is nevertheless necessary in order to initiate the appropriate treatment. A review of pharmacological treatments of depression related to frequent chronic somatic disorders is presented.