The clinics were gastroenterology, gynecology, neurology, rheumatology, chest, cardiology, and dentistry. In this paper, we report the prevalence and associations of medically unexplained symptoms in general hospital outpatients.Ĭonsecutive new patients residing in southeast London and referred by their general practitioners to outpatient clinics at King's College and Dulwich Hospitals between 19 were recruited. We conducted a cross-sectional study of medically unexplained symptoms in the general hospital, which included the principal medical specialities and used the same assessment across all settings. Other variables such as illness cognitions and the social consequences of the illness have tended to be ignored. Most research has focussed on variables such as demographic factors and psychiatric morbidity. Most studies have taken place in one or only a few clinics the number of variables under study have been limited and researchers often tend to concentrate on single specific symptoms or syndromes as opposed to looking at medically unexplained symptoms as a whole. Many questions about medically unexplained symptoms remain unanswered. also found that the presence of somatic symptoms, whether medically explained or unexplained, was associated with psychiatric morbidity.

Another study of specialist care showed the number of lifetime somatic symptoms was significantly and positively related to the increase in the number of current and past episodes of anxiety and depression. Those without conventional medical explanation for their symptoms are about twice as likely to fulfill criteria for psychiatric disorders. Medically unexplained symptoms are reported to be more common among women, younger age groups, and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, ,, ,, ,, and are associated with the presence of psychiatric disorders. Medically unexplained symptoms are an important problem in general medicine not only because of their prevalence but also on account of the high associated consumption of health service resources. They can be presentations of recognized psychiatric disorders such as anxiety or depression a part of operationally defined unexplained syndromes such as chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, or fibromyalgia or simply exist as symptoms in the absence of a defined organic diagnosis. Medically unexplained symptoms are a common problem across general medicine. Medical behavior, training, and management need to take this into account. Conclusions: Medically unexplained symptoms are common across general/internal medicine and represent the most common diagnosis in some specialities. Patients with medically unexplained symptoms were more likely to attribute their illness to physical causes as opposed to lifestyle factors. Those with medically unexplained symptoms were less disabled, but more likely to use alternative treatment in comparison with those whose symptoms were medically explained. Psychiatric morbidity per se was not associated with the presence of medically unexplained symptoms, but was more likely in those complaining of multiple symptoms. After adjustment for confounders, medically unexplained symptoms were associated with being female, younger, and currently employed. The highest prevalence was in the gynecology clinic (66%). Two hundred twenty-eight (52%) fulfilled criteria for medically unexplained symptoms. A final diagnosis was available in 550 (62%). Results: Five hundred eighty-two (65%) of the subjects surveyed returned completed questionnaires.

Demographic and clinical characteristic variables were assessed. Eight hundred and ninety consecutive new patients from seven outpatient clinics were included. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted at two general hospitals in southeast London between 19. Objectives: This study aimed to estimate the prevalence and risk factors for medically unexplained symptoms across a variety of specialities.

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