PREVALENCE OF SOMATOFORM DISORDERS IN A LARGE-SAMPLE OF PATIENTS WITHANXIETY DISORDERS

The authors investigated the prevalence and characteristics of somatof orm (SOM) disorders among 654 subjects with anxiety disorders who were part of the larger Harvard/Brown Anxiety Disorders Research Project. Thirty-six (5.5%) of the subjects had past or current SOM disorders. T he subjects with SOM disorders were significantly more likely to have histories of posttraumatic stress disorder (22% vs. 8%, P = 0.01). The subjects with generalized anxiety disorder had significantly higher r ates of SOM disorder (9.2% vs. 4.0%, P = 0.01). These results add supp ort to the observation that SOM disorders are frequently comorbid with anxiety and depressive disorders.