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Letters |15 December 1997

Rethinking Somatization

Patrick G. O'Malley, MD; Kurt Kroenke, MD

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  • Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences; Bethesda, MD 20814
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TO THE EDITOR:
McWhinney and colleagues [1] make a spirited argument for the incorporation of the biopsychosocial model into the management of somatic symptoms. It is hard to dispute the verity of this model, but we fail to see the relevance of abandoning the categorization of chronic unexplained symptoms as somatoform disorders. The authors contend that the label somatizer points to patients as the “authors of their own bodily suffering.” However, this attribution of moral culpability is not unique to somatization but applies to mental disorder diagnoses in general. Only recently have the public and the health care profession begun to classify depression, alcohol disorders, and schizophrenia as legitimate illnesses rather than personal failings.
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O'Malley PG, Kroenke K. Rethinking Somatization. Ann Intern Med. 1997;127:1133. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-127-12-199712150-00030

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Published: Ann Intern Med. 1997;127(12):1133.

DOI: 10.7326/0003-4819-127-12-199712150-00030

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