Somatoform disorders: perspectives from Pakistan

Abstract

Somatoform disorders represent widespread and largely unsolved problems at the border between psychiatry and medicine. Patients with somatoform disorders often present difficult diagnostic and management problems. A series of three community-based epidemiological surveys of rural and urban populations in Pakistan found high prevalence of common mental disorders where the core presentations were somatic complaints. All the three epidemiological surveys used the Bradford Somatic Inventory (BSI), which was developed from symptom reports by psychiatric patients in Pakistan; these enquired about somatic symptoms in the local language, taking into account local cultural idioms of distress. At a conservative estimate, 66% of women and 25% men suffered from anxiety and depressive disorders whereby the complaints predominantly were somatic in nature. People in rural non-Western cultures are not psychologically minded and do not have abstract language or concepts of emotional distress and therefore communicate their emotions somatically. In Pakistan somatoform disorders possess a prominent diagnostic dilemma. The cornerstone of the management is a comprehensive medical, psychiatric and psychosocial evaluation of the patient. Patients with multiple somatic complaints not only present formidable management problems but also often have severe functional impairments that may outweigh those of patients with other so-called severe mental illnesses. Since somatoform disorders are the most common psychiatric disorders to present in non-psychiatric settings, it is important that training about them begin at undergraduate level. It should also be incorporated in the training of a wide variety of non-psychiatric specialists, both medical and non-medical.