title: Disability and functional burden of disease because of mental in comparison to somatic disorders in general practice patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Severity of illness is not only depending on the symptom load, but also on the burden in life. Mental disorders are among those illnesses, which in particular cause suffering to the individual and society.
  
  
  METHODS
  To study burden of disease for mental in comparison to somatic disorders, 2099 patients from 40 general practitioners filled in (a) the Burvill scale which measures acute and chronic illnesses in ten different body systems and (b) the IMET scale which measures impairment in ten different areas of life.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients were suffering on average from acute and/or chronic illness in 3.5 (SD: 2.0) body systems and 56.6% of patients complained about acute and/or chronic mental disorders. The most significant negative impact on the IMET total score have acute and chronic mental disorders, followed by chronic neurological and musculoskeletal and acute respiratory and gastrointestinal disorders, while cardiovascular, metabolic, urogenital, haematological and ear/eye disorders have no greater impact. Acute as well as chronic mental disorders cause impairment across all areas of life and most burden of disease (functional burden of disease 1.69), followed by musculoskeletal disorders (1.62).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Mental disorders are among the most frequent health problems with high negative impact across all areas of life. When combining frequency and impairment mental disorders cause most burden of disease in comparison to other illnesses. This should be reflected in the organization of medical care including family medicine.
authors.affiliation: Research Group Psychosomatic Rehabilitation, Charité University Medicine, Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: michael.linden@charite.de.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Linden
authors.affiliation: Research Group Psychosomatic Rehabilitation, Charité University Medicine, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Linden
authors.affiliation: Department of General Practice Medicine, Charité University Medicine, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Schwantes
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000208:Acute Disease / Q000145:classification / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D000328:Adult; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000145:classification / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D017281:Cost of Illness; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D058006:General Practice / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D008875:Middle Aged; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
keywords: Burden of disease; Disability; ICF; Participation restriction; Primary care; Social psychiatry