SENSITIZATION, SOMATIZATION, AND SUBJECTIVE HEALTH COMPLAINTS

More than half of the days lost due to sickness absence are due to dia gnostic groups that solely or mainly depend on subjective statements f rom the patient. The most frequent subjective health complaints are mu sculoskeletal pain. These conditions do not seem to qualify as psychia tric or mental disorders, but are not strictly somatic states either. Terms like somatization may be inadequate terms for states that may be best understood as psychobiological feedback loops. Subjective health complaints is suggested as a neutral, descriptive term. Only a minori ty requires treatment and sickness compensation for prolonged periods for these very common states. In these patients the neurons in feed-fo rward and positive feed-back loops may have developed sensitization. T hese patients tend to show an abnormal sensitivity to sensory input fr om muscles, the gastrointestinal tract, and to smell and taste. It see ms to be futile to search for single-factor solutions. This approach o pens up for the possible effectiveness of many different types of trea tment, breaking the feedback loops.