When it's all in their heads: managing the somatizing patient.
More than 50% of medical visits are undertaken by the "worried well," people who manifest physical symptoms without having any underlying physical malady. The Harvard Pilgrim Health Plan has created a program--being made available to other plans and provider groups--to curtail overutilization by these somatizing patients while providing them with the tools to find relief from their very real physical symptoms.
D001900:Boston; D003376:Counseling; D019468:Disease Management; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D016730:Program Development; D011603:Psychophysiology; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*