Affiliation
Cancer Research Campaign, Psychological Medicine Group, Christie Hospital, Manchester, UK. chatur@nimhans.ren.nic.inIssue Date
1998-09
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Nature and frequency of somatic complaints, severity of anxiety and depression, and nature of psychiatric symptoms and disorders were evaluated in 81 adequately treated cancer patients, disease-free or with residual disease, using a controlled, prospective follow-up design. Patients were included in the index group (n=60) if they had persistent somatic complaints or unexplained nature or severity of somatic complaints, or the control group (n=21), if they did not report somatic complaints. Instruments used for evaluation were the Scale for Assessment of Somatic Symptoms, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Psychiatric Assessment Schedule, and DSM-III-R. Common somatic complaints in the index group were pain (19%), fatigue (17%), sensory symptoms (30%), and mixed symptoms (27%). Subjects in the index group significantly (p<0.001) more often had depressive or anxiety disorder (19%) and atypical somatoform disorder (15%). Patients were treated appropriately with psychotropic medications and counseling. Follow-up at 4-6 months revealed a significant reduction in the number of somatic symptoms (p<0.001) and anxiety (p<0.001) and depression (p<0.05) scores. The observations confirm that somatic symptoms may persist in cancer patients, which are related to concomitant psychopathology, and require psychiatric intervention.Citation
Persistent somatization in cancer: a controlled follow-up study. 1998, 45 (3):249-56 J Psychosom ResJournal
Journal of Psychosomatic ResearchDOI
10.1016/S0022-3999(98)00013-0PubMed ID
9776370Type
ArticleLanguage
enISSN
0022-3999ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1016/S0022-3999(98)00013-0