Somatization disorder in a university hospital

Somatization disorder is a condition characterized by multiple unexplained complaints. To characterize this disorder as it occurs in a university hospital, a sample of 213 patients admitted to adult medical and surgical services was studied. Nineteen of these patients (9 percent) met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, ed 3, criteria for somatization disorder. A significantly higher proportion of the women compared with the men interviewed had the disorder (14 percent vs 3 percent, P less than .01). Fourteen percent of the divorced, separated, or widowed subjects qualified for the diagnosis, compared with 7 percent of the married subjects and 5 percent of the never-married subjects (P less than .05). Likewise, 32 percent of single patients with children at home had somatization disorder, compared with 4 percent of subjects in all other household configurations (P less than .001). When compared with matched controls, patients with somatization disorder had hospitalizations of roughly equal duration and expense, but had a much higher proportion of negative findings on workup for their presenting complaints (74 percent vs 21 percent, P less than .01). Nevertheless, these patients perceived their health as significantly worse than those without the disorder (P less than .001). None of the patients enrolled in this study had the diagnosis of somatization disorder at admission or discharge. This study documents that patients with somatization disorder are common, are unrecognized, and are admitted to the hospital for nonproductive workups.