The overlap of somatic, anxious and depressive syndromes: A population-based analysis

The comorbidity of somatic, anxious and depressive syndromes occurs in half of all primary care cases. As research on this overlap of syndromes in the general population is scarce, the present study investigated the prevalence of the overlapping syndromes and their association with health care use.

A national general population survey was conducted between June and July 2012. Trained interviewers contacted participants face-to-face, during which, individuals reported their health care use in the previous 12months. Somatic, anxious and depressive syndromes were assessed using the Somatic Symptom Scale-8 (SSS-8), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-2 (GAD-2) and Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2) respectively.

Out of 2510 participants, 236 (9.4%) reported somatic (5.9%), anxious (3.4%) or depressive (4.7%) syndromes, which were comorbid in 86 (3.4%) cases. The increase in the number of syndromes was associated with increase in health care visits (no syndrome: 3.18 visits vs. mono syndrome: 5.82 visits vs. multi syndromes: 14.16 visits, (F_(2,2507)=149.10, p<0.00001)). Compared to each somatic (semi-partial r²=3.4%), anxious (semi-partial r²=0.82%) or depressive (semi-partial r²=0.002%) syndrome, the syndrome overlap (semi-partial r²=6.6%) explained the greatest part of variance of health care use (_{change_in}R²⁼11.2%, _{change_in}F_(3,2499)=112.81, p<0.001.) CONCLUSIONS: The overlap of somatic, anxious and depressive syndromes is frequent in the general population but appears to be less common compared to primary care populations. To estimate health care use in the general population the overlap of somatic, anxious and depressive syndromes should be considered.