Somatization

In many instances, both in general hospital and family practice, physical symptoms shown by the patients have an emotional cause. This distress can be caused by the environment, the family or an accident. This phenomenon is known as the somatic manifestation of psychological ill health. These symptoms are frequently thought of as rare and atypical ways for psychiatric illness to present but are, in fact, common and typical. This book describes the diagnosis and clinical management of somatisation dealing with the broad spectrum of presentations, eg: headache, pelvic pain, fatigue, which may have no physical basis.