MEDICALLY UNEXPLAINED SOMATIC SYMPTOMS IN DIFFERENT CULTURES - A PRELIMINARY-REPORT FROM PHASE-I OF THE WORLD-HEALTH-ORGANIZATION INTERNATIONAL STUDY OF SOMATOFORM DISORDERS

The World Health Organization has recently launched an international s tudy of somatoform disorders in different cultures. Five centres repre senting distinct cultures participated in phase I of the project, the main objective of which was to test the cross-cultural applicability a nd reliability of instruments for the assessment of somatoform disorde rs. The analysis of the assessed somatic symptoms showed that various aches and pains in different parts of the body represented cross-cultu rally the most frequent symptoms for which there was no medical explan ation. Such symptoms may indicate the presence of an underlying mental disorder but can also represent a means for culture-specific expressi on of psychosocial distress. This bears particular significance for he alth professionals in primary and general medical care, who are most l ikely to encounter patients presenting with multiple, persistent and m edically unexplained somatic symptoms.