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IJE Advance Access originally published online on March 1, 2006
International Journal of Epidemiology 2006 35(2):477-478; doi:10.1093/ije/dyl035
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Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Epidemiological Association © The Author 2006; all rights reserved.

Commentary

Commentary: Symptoms not associated with disease: an unmet public health challenge

Jane Walker1,*, Michael Sharpe1 and Simon Wessely2

1 Department of Psychological Medicine and Symptoms Research, School of Molecular and Clinical Medicine, University of Edinburgh, UK
2 Department of Psychological Medicine, Guy's, King's and St Thomas' School of Medicine, London, UK

* Corresponding author. Kennedy Tower, Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Edinburgh, EH10 5HF, Scotland, UK. E-mail: jane.walker@ed.ac.uk

Accepted 9 February 2006

The first 10% of the full text of this article appears below.


   Medically unexplained symptoms
 
Modern medicine is based on pathological diagnosis. But many patients present with symptoms that lack any identifiable pathology. How should their ‘medically unexplained’ complaints be understood and categorized so as to provide an understanding of their condition and guide their care? Within psychiatry medically unexplained symptoms have been classified under the somatoform disorder label. Medical specialties have also played a part in naming symptoms-based syndromes, leading to a number of specialist-based diagnoses, for example, irritable bowel syndrome (gastroenterology), non-cardiac chest pain (cardiology), and chronic pelvic . . . [Full Text of this Article]


   Why are medically unexplained symptoms important?
 

   Which diagnosis?
 

   New evidence
 

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