An approach to symptoms at the interface of medicine and psychiatry: pain, insomnia, weight loss and anorexia, fatigue and forgetfulness, and sexual dysfunction

Oliver Freudenreich; Nicholas Kontos; Shamim H Nejad; Anne F Gross

doi:10.1016/j.mcna.2010.08.006

An approach to symptoms at the interface of medicine and psychiatry: pain, insomnia, weight loss and anorexia, fatigue and forgetfulness, and sexual dysfunction

Med Clin North Am. 2010 Nov;94(6):1217-27, xi. doi: 10.1016/j.mcna.2010.08.006.

Authors

Oliver Freudenreich¹, Nicholas Kontos, Shamim H Nejad, Anne F Gross

Affiliation

¹ Harvard Medical School, 25 Shattuck Street, Boston, MA 02115, USA. [email protected]

PMID: 20951279
DOI: 10.1016/j.mcna.2010.08.006

Abstract

Primary care physicians commonly deal with patients who present with a somatic complaint for which no clear organic etiology can be found. This article discusses how a psychiatrist thinks about somatic symptoms (eg, pain, insomnia, weight loss and loss of appetite, fatigue and forgetfulness, sexual dysfunction) in a patient who might have depression. The management of a patient in whom no satisfactory medical or psychiatric diagnosis can be made is also reviewed briefly.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Anorexia / etiology
Fatigue / etiology
Humans
Memory Disorders / etiology
Pain / etiology
Sexual Dysfunctions, Psychological / etiology
Sleep Initiation and Maintenance Disorders / etiology
Somatoform Disorders / diagnosis*
Somatoform Disorders / etiology
Somatoform Disorders / therapy*
Weight Loss