Psychiatric disorders in relation to medical illness among patients of a general medical out-patient clinic

In many patients clinical care in general medical settings is complicated by the presence of psychiatric disorders in addition to the presenting physical symptoms. In the present study the prevalence and type of psychiatric disorders was assessed in relation to the medical diagnostic findings in a g...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological medicine 1993-02, Vol.23 (1), p.167-173
Main Authors: Van Hemert, Albert M., Hengeveld, Michiel W., Bolk, Jan H., Rooijmans, Harry G. M., Vandenbroucke, Jan P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Ambulatory Care
Biological and medical sciences
Family Practice
Female
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Mental Disorders - diagnosis
Mental Disorders - psychology
Middle Aged
Original Articles
Prevalence
Psychiatric disorders
Psychiatric epidemiology
Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Referral and Consultation
Relationship
Sickness
Social psychiatry. Ethnopsychiatry
Somatoform Disorders - etiology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In many patients clinical care in general medical settings is complicated by the presence of psychiatric disorders in addition to the presenting physical symptoms. In the present study the prevalence and type of psychiatric disorders was assessed in relation to the medical diagnostic findings in a general internal medicine out-patient clinic. The Present State Examination, a standardized psychiatric interview, was used to detect psychiatric disorders in 191 newly referred patients. Psychiatric disorders were found to be particularly prevalent among patients with medically ill-explained or unexplained symptoms. The prevalence of psychiatric disorders was 15% for patients with a medical explanation for their presenting symptom, 45% for patients with ill-explained and 38% for those with unexplained symptoms. Approximately 40% of the patients with psychiatric disorders met DSM-III-R criteria for somatization disorder or hypochondriasis, suggesting that these disorders contributed in particular to general medical out-patient referrals.
ISSN:0033-2917
1469-8978
DOI:10.1017/S0033291700038952