The use of hospitalizations by persistent somatizing patients

Abstract

SYNOPSISMedical records were selected from the Danish National Patient Register in order to study individuals between the ages of 17 and 49 years in the general population who, during an 8-year period, were admitted at least 10 times to a general hospital (N = 282). Fifty-six subjects (19%) were found to be persistent somatizers, i.e. they were admitted repeatedly to general hospitals for physical symptoms without an organic basis. This corresponded to a frequency of persistent somatization in the population 0·6 per 1000 men and 3·2 per 1000 women.