Patients presenting with somatic complaints in general practice: depression, anxiety and somatoform disorders are frequent and associated with psychosocial stressors

BMC Family Practice

Research Article

Nader Haftgoli¹  Paul Vaucher¹  Bernard Favrat¹  Thomas Bischoff²  François Verdon²  Lilli Herzig²  Bernard Burnand³ 

[1] Department of Ambulatory Care and Community Medicine, University of Lausanne, Bugnon 44, 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland;Institute of General Medicine, University of Lausanne, Bugnon 44, 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland;Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois and University of Lausanne, Bugnon 21, 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland;

关键词: Mental Disorder;    Irritable Bowel Syndrome;    Chronic Fatigue Syndrome;    Psychosocial Stressor;    Primary Care Patient;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2296-11-67

 received in 2010-06-02, accepted in 2010-09-15,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundMental disorders in primary care patients are frequently associated with physical complaints that can mask the disorder. There is insufficient knowledge concerning the role of anxiety, depression, and somatoform disorders in patients presenting with physical symptoms. Our primary objective was to determine the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and somatoform disorders among primary care patients with a physical complaint. We also investigated the relationship between cumulated psychosocial stressors and mental disorders.MethodsWe conducted a multicentre cross-sectional study in twenty-one private practices and in one academic primary care centre in Western Switzerland. Randomly selected patients presenting with a spontaneous physical complaint were asked to complete the self-administered Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) between November 2004 and July 2005. The validated French version of the PHQ allowed the diagnosis of mental disorders (DSM-IV criteria) and the analyses of exposure to psychosocial stressors.ResultsThere were 917 patients exhibiting at least one physical symptom included. The rate of depression, anxiety, and somatoform disorders was 20.0% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 17.4% to 22.7%), 15.5% (95% CI = 13.2% to 18.0%), and 15.1% (95% CI = 12.8% to 17.5%), respectively. Psychosocial stressors were significantly associated with mental disorders. Patients with an accumulation of psychosocial stressors were more likely to present anxiety, depression, or somatoform disorders, with an increase of 2.2 fold (95% CI = 2.0 to 2.5) for each additional stressor.ConclusionsThe investigation of mental disorders and psychosocial stressors among patients with physical complaints is relevant in primary care. Psychosocial stressors should be explored as potential epidemiological causes of mental disorders.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Haftgoli et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.