A nosological study of patients presenting with somatic complaints

The nosological status of patients presenting with multiple somatic complaints with reference to ICD-9 was examined in the present study. In 22% of the cases it was not possible to arrive at a single ICD-9 diagnosis. The majority of these cases had combinations of somatic, anxiety and depressive symptoms. Nine percent of the cases could not be given any psychiatric diagnosis using ICD-9. These cases had very few psychological symptoms and were not identified as psychiatric cases by the present state examination. The various possible factors responsible for this diagnostic uncertainty have been highlighted.