title: [Somatoform and factitious disorders in clinical medicine].
abstract: Patients with "medically unexplained somatic symptoms" are frequent in every health care system. The bodily complaints may persist over a long period of time, cause serious subjective suffering and be associated with secondary psychiatric comorbidity and major disabilities in psychosocial life. The doctor-patient relationship is often hampered by emotional conflicts, leading to unsuccessful treatment, doctor-shopping and chronic courses of illness. A major subgroup of patients with somatoform disorders and a minor subgroup of patients with self-induced, i.e., factitious disorders must be differentiated, both showing a complex etiopathogenesis of their somatic symptoms. Patients with somatoform and factitious disorders present a special challenge within the health care system.
authors.affiliation: Klinik für Psychiatrie, Medizinische Universität Graz, Graz, Austria. Hans-peter.kapfhammer@klinikum-graz.at
authors.forename: Hans-Peter
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Kapfhammer
mesh_terms: D015510:Clinical Medicine / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D005162:Factitious Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000639:trends; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*