TY - JOUR
T1 - Explained and unexplained medical symptoms in generalized anxiety and panic disorder
T2 - Relationship to the somatoform disorders
AU - Barbee, James G.
AU - Todorov, Alexandre A.
AU - Kuczmierczyk, Andrzej R.
AU - Mancuso, Donna M.
AU - Schwab, John J.
AU - Maddock, Richard J.
AU - Hoehn-Saric, Rudolf
AU - Kelley, Lee Ann
AU - Davidson, Jonathan R.T.
PY - 1997/11/13
Y1 - 1997/11/13
N2 - We have examined the numbers and types of symptoms in a sample of 90 patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and 77 patients with panic disorder (PD) collected from six different sites during the conduct of a multicenter clinical trial. This information was obtained utilizing the Health Questionnaire, a 47-item self-report list of medical symptoms, patterned after the Somatization Disorder section of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule. Although the patients in this sample had a wide variety of medically explained and unexplained physical symptoms, none of them qualified for a diagnosis of somatization disorder by DSM-III-R criteria. GAD and PD patients reported remarkably similar numbers of explained and unexplained medical symptoms. The panoply of somatic symptoms presented by these patients presents a formidable diagnostic challenge for clinicians. These findings suggest that the pattern of overutilization of medical services that is well documented for PD patients may also be found for GAD patients.
AB - We have examined the numbers and types of symptoms in a sample of 90 patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and 77 patients with panic disorder (PD) collected from six different sites during the conduct of a multicenter clinical trial. This information was obtained utilizing the Health Questionnaire, a 47-item self-report list of medical symptoms, patterned after the Somatization Disorder section of the Diagnostic Interview Schedule. Although the patients in this sample had a wide variety of medically explained and unexplained physical symptoms, none of them qualified for a diagnosis of somatization disorder by DSM-III-R criteria. GAD and PD patients reported remarkably similar numbers of explained and unexplained medical symptoms. The panoply of somatic symptoms presented by these patients presents a formidable diagnostic challenge for clinicians. These findings suggest that the pattern of overutilization of medical services that is well documented for PD patients may also be found for GAD patients.
KW - Generalized anxiety
KW - Panic
KW - Physical symptomatology
KW - Somatization
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0030782460&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1023/A:1026225923747
DO - 10.1023/A:1026225923747
M3 - Article
C2 - 9339880
AN - SCOPUS:0030782460
VL - 9
SP - 149
EP - 155
JO - Annals of Clinical Psychiatry
JF - Annals of Clinical Psychiatry
SN - 1040-1237
IS - 3
ER -