Main description:

Medically unexplained somatic symptoms are problematic in psychiatry, primary care settings, and other clinical areas. The burden they impose on health-care systems constitutes a significant public health problem. At the international symposium "Rethinking Somatoform Disorders," this problem was addressed by specialists working in somatoform disorders, psychiatric nosology, epidemiology, and biological and cross-cultural psychiatry. The meeting was the third of the Keio University International Symposia for Life Sciences and Medicine, in collaboration with the World Health Organization and the World Psychiatric Association.

Contents:

1 Understanding the Concept of Somatoform Disorders.- The Concept of Somatoform Disorders: A Comment on the Mind-Body Problem in Psychiatry.- The Classification of Somatoform Disorders in ICD-10.- The Differential Diagnosis of Somatoform Disorders.- European Concepts.- Somatoform Disorders-An Arab Perspective.- Classification of Somatoform Disorders in Japan.- Somatization in the Elderly.- Somatic Symptoms in Children from Three Ethnic Groups.- Hypochondriasis.- Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.- Biological Markers of Fibromyalgia.- 2 Studies on Somatoform Disorders in Different. Cultures.- WHO International Study of Somatoform Disorders: an Overview of Methods and Preliminary Results.- Help-Seeking Behavior Across Different Age and Culture Groups.- The Influence of Depression and Anxiety on the Course of Somatization in Primary Case.- Somatization in Different Cultures (I). Taijin Kyofusho as One Aspect of Somatoform Disorders in Japan.- Culture and Illness-Clinical Presentation and Management of Somatoform Disorders in Cambodia.- Post-Traumatic Somatic and Psychological Problems.- Somatoform Disorders in China.- Preliminary Research on the Clinical Features of Somatoform Disorders in Three General Hospitals.- Neurasthenia: Transpacific Comparisons.- Somatization in Papua New Guinea.- Somatization in Thailand.- Somatization in Field Studies.- 3 Management and Economic Aspects of Somatoform Disorders.- Psychotherapy of Somatoform Disorders.- The Psychological Treatment of Somatoform Disorders.- Schematic Understanding of the Worried Patient with Somatoform Disorder.- Problems in Pharmacologic Management of Somatoform Disorders.- Approach to the Treatment of Somatoform Disorders in General Practice.- Approaches to the Treatment of Somatoform Disorders in Liaison Psychiatry.- Approaches to the Treatment of Somatoform Disorders in Internal Medicine.- The Use of Japanese Herbal Medicine in the Treatment of Somatoform Disorders.- Therapeutic Effects of Acupuncture Combined with Psychotherapy for Patients with Somatoform Disorders.- The Economic Burden of Somatoform Disorders.- Economic Aspects of Somatoform Disorders in Japan.- 4 Summary and Outlook.- Rhetorics of the Body: Medically Unexplained Symptoms in Sociocultural Perspective.- Key Word Index.