Childhood somatoform disorders and its associated stressors

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Childhood Somatoform Disorders and Its Associated Stressors

Ashish Marwah¹, Mukesh Kumar Swami², Mahesh Kumar².

¹Department of Pediatrics, BPS Government Medical College for Women, Khanpur Kalan, Sonepat, Haryana, India,
²Department of Psychiatry, BPS Government Medical College for Women, Khanpur Kalan, Sonepat, Haryana, India.

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Abstract
Aim: To study the clinical and socio-demographic profile of somatoform disorders and its associated stressors among pediatric population in a rural setting.
Settings and Design: This cross-sectional study was done from Jan 2015 to June 2015 at rural tertiary care teaching hospital.
Methods and Materials: Fifty children presenting with physically unexplained symptoms during the study period were assessed. Complete physical and psychiatric assessment was done and diagnosis was made using DSM -IV TR criteria. Patient Health questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15) was used for recording presenting symptoms and severity. Data were analyzed with Statistical Package for social sciences (SPSS 17) and association between different variables was determined using Chi-square test.
Results: Male: female ratio was 24:26. Forty-two (84%) of our patients were from rural background. Most common presenting symptom was fainting spells (28%) followed by pain in abdomen (20%). Stressors were elicited in 64% patients and most common stressor was strained interpersonal relations (20%) in family. Females presented with significantly more severe illness (p=0.024).
Conclusions: Psychosocial stressors especially interpersonal relations are important factor which needs to be evaluated while encountering patients with somatoform disorder.

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