Relationship between Perceived Social Support and Severity of Symptoms in Persons with Somatoform Disorder

BACKGROUND Somatization is a common problem in primary health care leading to disproportionately heavy demands on health services. Patients with somatoform disorder account for about 20% of the workload in general practice. In somatoform disorder multiple or unexplained physical symptoms cause substantial disability in patients, while their psychiatric distress remains unrecognised and untreated. Studies have shown that good perceived social support improves the well-being of a person and also affects the outcome of treatment in somatoform disorder. Our study aimed at investigating relationship of severity of somatic symptoms and perceived social support in people with somatoform disorder. METHODS This study is a cross-sectional single interview study in a tertiary care centre. All patients attending psychiatry OPD of R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, diagnosed with somatoform disorder (ICD-10) fulfilling inclusion and exclusion criteria were included in this study. Total 60 patients were selected. Inclusion criteria include patients aged between 18 to 60 years, both sexes and exclusion criteria include patients with mental retardation, epilepsy, any other neurological disorder and with co-morbid mental disorder. Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15) and Multidimensional scale of perceived social support assessment were used to assess severity of somatic symptoms and perceived social support respectively. Data was then analysed using standard statistical methods. RESULTS Our study revealed that women (93.33%) reported more somatic symptoms than men (6.66%). There was highly significant (p value=0.00) negative correlation (r=-0.76) between social support and severity of somatic symptoms i.e. patients who perceived high acuity of social support were reported to have less severity of somatic symptoms. CONCLUSIONS There exists a significant negative correlation between severity of somatic symptoms and perceived social support in persons with somatoform disorder.