TY - JOUR
KW - Culture
KW - Female
KW - Humans
KW - Life Change Events
KW - Male
KW - Primary Health Care
KW - Psychological Theory
KW - Somatoform Disorders/ethnology/psychology
KW - Stress, Psychological/psychology
AU - L. J. Kirmayer
AU - D. Groleau
AU - K. J. Looper
AU - M. D. Dao
A1 - 
AB - Patients with medically unexplained symptoms comprise from 15% to 30% of all primary care consultations. Physicians often assume that psychological factors account for these symptoms, but current theories of psychogenic causation, somatization, and somatic amplification cannot fully account for common unexplained symptoms. Psychophysiological and sociophysiological models provide plausible medical explanations for most common somatic symptoms. Psychological explanations are often not communicated effectively, do not address patient concerns, and may lead patients to reject treatment or referral because of potential stigma. Across cultures, many systems of medicine provide sociosomatic explanations linking problems in family and community with bodily distress. Most patients, therefore, have culturally based explanations available for their symptoms. When the bodily nature and cultural meaning of their suffering is validated, most patients will acknowledge that stress, social conditions, and emotions have an effect on their physical condition. This provides an entree to applying the symptom-focused strategies of behavioural medicine to address the psychosocial factors that contribute to chronicity and disability.
BT - Canadian journal of psychiatry.Revue canadienne de psychiatrie
C5 - Medically Unexplained Symptoms
CP - 10
CY - Canada
IS - 10
JF - Canadian journal of psychiatry.Revue canadienne de psychiatrie
N2 - Patients with medically unexplained symptoms comprise from 15% to 30% of all primary care consultations. Physicians often assume that psychological factors account for these symptoms, but current theories of psychogenic causation, somatization, and somatic amplification cannot fully account for common unexplained symptoms. Psychophysiological and sociophysiological models provide plausible medical explanations for most common somatic symptoms. Psychological explanations are often not communicated effectively, do not address patient concerns, and may lead patients to reject treatment or referral because of potential stigma. Across cultures, many systems of medicine provide sociosomatic explanations linking problems in family and community with bodily distress. Most patients, therefore, have culturally based explanations available for their symptoms. When the bodily nature and cultural meaning of their suffering is validated, most patients will acknowledge that stress, social conditions, and emotions have an effect on their physical condition. This provides an entree to applying the symptom-focused strategies of behavioural medicine to address the psychosocial factors that contribute to chronicity and disability.
PP - Canada
PY - 2004
SN - 0706-7437; 0706-7437
SP - 663
EP - 672
EP - 
T1 - Explaining medically unexplained symptoms
T2 - Canadian journal of psychiatry.Revue canadienne de psychiatrie
TI - Explaining medically unexplained symptoms
U1 - Medically Unexplained Symptoms
U2 - 15560312
VL - 49
VO - 0706-7437; 0706-7437
Y1 - 2004
ER -