Psychiatria pre prax 3/2002

Have we any chance to be successful in the treatment of the outpatients with somatoform disorders?

The somatoform disorders are distinguished by many somatic symptoms, very often variable that are not fully explained by the medical condition, by substance use, or by another mental disorder. The symptoms are severe enough to cause patients significant distress or impaired social or occupational ability. We have managed the retrospective investigation of the thirty outpatients group who have been treating since 1998 for somatoform disorders according to ICD – 10. We have tried to research the effectiveness of used antidepressants in the treatment of somatoform disorders in the usual clinic practice. It has been shown that the most effective results were in the treatment of somatoform pain disorder by tricyklic and tetracyklic antidepressants. Two interesting examples were chosen to demonstrate the differential diagnostic problem and our experience with the forth generation antidepressant treatment.

Keywords: somatoform disorders, somatization, antidepressants.