Objectives: This epidemiological multicenter study investigates the prevalence and comorbidity of somatoform disorder in psychosomatic inpatients.
Methods: Twenty psychosomatic hospitals collected the diagnoses of all treated patients in the years 1998 to 2007. The data were analysed at the "Institute for Quality Assurance in Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine" (IQP),Munich.
Results: Of the 100,607 patients surveyed, 18,492 (18.4 %) fulfilled the ICD-10 criteria for a somatoform disorder. 91.9 % of patients with somatoform disorder have at least one, on average 2.8 additional psychiatric disorders. The mean duration of the symptoms before current treatment was 62.6 months.
Conclusions: The prevalence of somatoform disorder in psychosomatic inpatients is comparable to that found in data from internal or general medicine patients. However, there are major differences in the distribution of the diagnostic subgroups of somatoform disorder.