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Original Article

Explained and Unexplained Medical Symptoms in Generalized Anxiety and Panic Disorder: Relationship to the Somatoform Disorders

, , , , , , , & show all
Pages 149-155 | Published online: 04 Dec 2011
 

Abstract

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.

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