Psychological distress among patients with musculoskeletal illness in general practice

The authors investigated the importance of psychological distress and somat ization among patients With musculoskeletal illness in general practice. Th e authors used the Hopkins Symptom Check List (SCL-8) and the Whiteley Inde x to rate 1, 720 patients with musculoskeletal illness referred to physioth erapy from general practice. General practitioners (GPs), patients, and phy siotherapists often noted stress or psychological distress to be a possible cause of the patient's musculoskeletal illness, but agreement between them was low. If the GP included the patient's own view on psychological distre ss, the result of the SCL-8 did not add much to the detection of distress. The results emphasize the importance of discussing psychological distress w hen dealing with patients with musculoskeletal illness.