Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Pamukkale Medical Journal, cilt.15, sa.4, ss.846-852, 2022 (Scopus)
Somatic symptom disorder is a condition which non-delusional thoughts that a person has a serious illness persist in six months or longer. It has been stated that it is especially seen in individuals with female gender and low socioeconomic level. Somatic symptom disorder has social, cultural and psychological aspects. Individuals who have somatic symptom disorders tend to apply to health services very frequently. Although these patients avoid getting psychiatric support, they mostly turn to general medical services. It has been shown that more than half of the applications to primary health care services are made up of individuals with somatic symptoms. Difficulties are experienced in the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of these patients, and many invasive and non-invasive tests are applied to the patients. This situation, which also causes a significant economic cost for the health system, often leads to missed diagnosis of patients and delayed treatment. While the current situation causes feelings such as disappointment and helplessness for physicians, it also causes dissatisfaction with physicians and the health system in patients. Somatic symptom disorder is a mental disorder that causes significant deterioration in quality of life and disability. The etiology, diagnosis and treatment approaches of somatic symptom disorder, which is reported to be quite common in the general population, are not fully known. Somatic symptom disorder also causes comorbid conditions with depression and anxiety disorders. Therefore, early diagnosis and treatment of Somatic symptom disorder is important. In this article, we present a 51-year-old male patient who had more than 230 visits to a physician due to pain in the last five years. It is noteworthy that many invasive and non-invasive medical examinations were applied to the patient in the health institutions he applied for due to pain. There is also a significant loss of function in the patient's work, economic and social life. Increasing awareness about the diagnosis of somatic symptom disorder will increase the quality of life of patients and make positive contributions to the health system.