A. Janca et al., WORLD-HEALTH-ORGANIZATION INTERNATIONAL STUDY OF SOMATOFORM DISORDERS- BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE, The European journal of psychiatry, 9(2), 1995, pp. 100-110
The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently launched a study of t
he characteristics of somatoform disorders in different cultures. An e
xpert review of current knowledge on somatization and of issues that r
equire future research had been produced prior to the study, These iss
ues include the diagnosis, classification, assessment, cross-cultural
variation and treatment of somatization. The main objectives of the WH
O study are to test the cross-cultural applicability of the diagnostic
criteria for somatoform disorders and develop instruments for their a
ssessment; to assess the rates and other epidemiological indicators of
the somatic expression of psychological disorders in different cultur
es; to produce and evaluate a set of educational tools and a programme
of intervention for somatoform disorders in different parts of the wo
rld.