Abridged somatization: a study in primary care.
OBJECTIVE
We examined the prevalence, correlates, and predictive value of an abbreviated somatization index, based on specific symptom thresholds, in primary care patients using services at a university-affiliated clinic.


METHODS
We interviewed 1456 patients with a survey instrument that included the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) to elicit symptoms and diagnoses of several psychiatric disorders as well as demographic information and a measure of disability. Statistical analyses examined the relationship of abridged somatization with physical functioning and various demographic and diagnostic factors.


RESULTS
About one fifth of this primary care sample met the abridged somatization criteria. "Somatizers," defined according to these criteria, had significantly higher levels of psychiatric comorbidity and disability than "nonsomatizers". Analyses taking into account the number and type of organ/body systems represented by the unexplained symptoms showed that this dimension adds specificity to the prediction of outcomes. Thus, regardless of the total number of medically unexplained symptoms, abridged somatization with unexplained symptoms attributable to four or more organ/body systems showed the strongest association with disability and psychopathology.


CONCLUSIONS
Abridged Somatization is a frequent syndrome in primary care that is strongly associated with psychopathology and physical disability. Our research also yielded a new series of abridged somatization subtypes (eg, "discrete" vs. "comorbid" and "simple" vs. "polymorphous") that may effectively separate among various psychopathologies, and may become useful tools for future research with somatizing patients.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway 08854-5635, USA.
J I
JI
Escobar
H
H
Waitzkin
R C
RC
Silver
M
M
Gara
A
A
Holman
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012803:Sick Role; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology