Fluvoxamine for somatoform disorders: An open trial

Although the pharmacologic treatment of somatoform disorders has scarcely b een investigated, there is reason to believe that antidepressants might be useful. We examined the response of 29 patients with somatoform disorders f rom a general medicine clinic ro a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor,f luvoxamine. The drug was administered in doses of up to 300 mg daily for 8 weeks. Sixty-one percent of the patients who took medication for at least 2 weeks were at least moderately improved. In addition to antidepressant eff ects, fluvoxamine had other beneficial effects and was well-tolerated. The benefits of drug therapy were modest but appear to warrant a placebo-contro lled trial. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.