A BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL THERAPEUTIC APPROACH IN A PRIVATE OUTPATIENT-CLINICIN PORTUGAL

Patients with chronic stress and ambiguous symptoms are likely to be m ore frequent in primary care. ''Somatizers'' represent 75.8% of the pa tients in this study and executives 56% of the sample. Job stressors w ere present in 78.3% of executive men. This scenario suggests that the primary care physician has to be academically better prepared to full y understand and deal with stress problems in daily clinical practice. The physician must have skills to deal with stress at a curative and preventive level, extending those skills to the workplace.