[Epidemiology of somatoform disorders in the general French population]

A telephone survey based on 504 interviews, representative of the French population over 18, allowed to gauge the annual prevalence and identify the characteristics of somatoform disorders. This study was based on the inventory of 19 symptoms divided into 5 categories: gastrointestinal, pain, dermatological, cardiorespiratory and gynaecologic/urinary. "Medical somatoform disorders" (MSD) were defined as the repeated occurring, during the previous year, of not less than 1 symptom with an evolution duration equal or superior to 6 months, and causing personal and familial or professional problems. Such disorders had, in addition, to motivate one or more medical consultations concluding to the lack of somatic disease. These criteria included those proposed in DSM IV for the diagnosis of "Undifferentiated Somatoform Disorder", except for the exclusion criteria (E) which was not included in this study. Three out of four subjects (76% of the population) declared to endure not less than 1 somatic symptom in the course of the previous year. Near 1 out of 5 subjects (19%) had one MSD. MSD were more frequent among females than among males (sex-ratio F/M = 1.82). This data traces 3 types of phenomena: the somatic disorders prevalence and the consultation ratio in case of somatic disorders were higher among females than males; conversely, MSD ratio among somatic disorders consultants is higher among males than females. MSD prevalence does not vary with age, except for an underrepresentation among patients aged over 65 (13%).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)