The psychosocial review of systems

Psychosocial problems have a significant impact on the course and cost of medical illness. However, many of these areas are generally neglected in medical interviews. This manuscript presents a condensed review of the major psychosocial domains, which together constitute what we term a psychosocial review of systems (PROS). Selected references are provided which document the importance of these areas to medical care, and serve as background reading for further inquiry. The psychosocial areas which are covered include: substance use, stress and life events, subjective views of symptoms, daily activity, social support, sexual concerns, finances, psychiatric history and symptoms, cultural issues, and functional status. The Psychosocial Review of Systems (PROS) can serve as a basic overview for the psychosocial aspects of medical education, and also as a content based instrument which has potential for development as an assessment tool to measure physician competence in eliciting relevant psychosocial data.