Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the current approach to classifying bodily symptoms in both psychiatry and medicine and to suggest better alternatives. METHODS: Theoretical analysis, narrative review, and theoretical proposal. RESULTS: The assumptions that (a) bodily pathology can always explain bodily symptoms, (b) psychopathology can always explain bodily symptoms in the absence of bodily pathology, and (c) dichotomizing bodily symptoms into "medical" and "psychiatric" types is clinically useful were all found to have questionable validity and utility. CONCLUSION: Alternative multiaxial diagnostic approaches for the classification of bodily symptoms are proposed. These are intended to (a) give greater prominence to bodily symptoms in their own right, (b) allow etiology to be conceptualized in terms of multiple factors, and (c) provide the basis for integrating medical and psychiatric approaches to patient care.

Original publication

DOI

10.1016/j.jpsychores.2006.01.020

Type

Conference paper

Publication Date

04/2006

Volume

60

Pages

353 - 356

Keywords

Chronic Disease, Depressive Disorder, Diagnosis, Differential, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Humans, Pain, Psychophysiologic Disorders