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Somatisation. What is it?
1Department of Psychological Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne. david.clarke@med.monash.edu.au
Australian Family Physician
|April 1, 2000
Abstract
Background:
Patients with a strong somatic conviction despite an absence of objective measures of physical disease are vexing and frustrating for doctors.
Objective:
This paper describes the phenomenon of somatisation and the common forms of presentation.
Discussion:
Somatisation--the expression of distress in somatic form--is perhaps the commonest of the psychiatric phenomena seen in general practice. It is usually accompanied by degrees of depression and anxiety. General practitioners have a special opportunity for recognition and early intervention in order to prevent the development of chronic somatizing states.