[Internal medicine between soma and psyche : Functional bodily complaints and depressive disorders in outpatient...

Somatoform disorders are encountered in primary medical care with above-average frequency but are too rarely named as such in the differential diagnostics. The prevalence is approximately 30 % with a predominance of female patients. This patient group puts the physician-patient relationship to the acid test from the very beginning due to the fixation on organ-related symptoms, the expectations of repeated instrumental diagnostics and the special way of acting. The consequences are frequent changes of physicians, chronification and disappointment on both sides; however, a workable physician-patient relationship can be developed through an empathic but critically distanced fundamental attitude of the general internist based on a biopsychosocial illness concept. In the further course corrections in the understanding and expression of the illness on the part of the patient can be achieved with a pacing and leading strategy and with psychoeducative measures. The primary psychologization of functional complaints will not satisfy the affected person but outpatient psychotherapy should be initiated only after the patient has been well-prepared. Measures with medications mostly remain unspecific and serve only for relief of symptoms. For comorbidities with anxiety and/or depressive disorders the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors should be considered.