PERSISTENT SOMATIZATION IN CANCER - A CONTROLLED FOLLOW-UP-STUDY

Nature and frequency of somatic complaints, severity of anxiety and de pression, and nature of psychiatric symptoms and disorders were evalua ted in 81 adequately treated cancer patients, disease-free or with res idual disease, using a controlled, prospective follow-up design. Patie nts were included in the index group (n=60) if they had persistent som atic complaints or unexplained nature or severity of somatic complaint s, or the control group (n=21), if they did not report somatic complai nts. Instruments used for evaluation were the Scale for Assessment of Somatic Symptoms, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Psychiatric A ssessment Schedule, and DSM-III-R. Common somatic complaints in the in dex group were pain (19%); fatigue (17%), sensory symptoms (30%), and mixed symptoms (27%). Subjects in the index group significantly (p<0.0 01) more often had depressive or anxiety disorder (19%) and atypical s omatoform disorder (15%). Patients were treated appropriately with psy chotropic medications and counseling. Follow-up at 4-6 months revealed a significant reduction in the number of somatic symptoms (p<0.001) a nd anxiety (p<0.001) and depression (p<0.05) scores. The observations confirm that somatic symptoms may persist in dancer patients, which ar e related to concomitant psychopathology, and require psychiatric inte rvention. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.