Prevalence rate of somatization and psychological disorder among patients consulting outpatient clinic in Nassiriyah general hospital

Abstract EN

Objective To assess prevalence of somatization and psychological morbidity for patients presenting to out patient (O.

P)clinic in Al-Hussain hospital and to examine correlation between somatization and psychological disorders Methods Out patient (n = 100 ) presenting to out patient clinic of hospital were screened with Bradford somatization inventory which gauge psychosomatic morbidity and self reporting questionnaire which measure psychological distress.

Results Somatization disorder as defined by Bradford, and psychological morbidity were relatively common in out patient clinic in Nasiriyah O.

P hospital settings.

There was significant positive correlation between indices of somatization and psychological morbidity..

Conclusion Nasiriyah patients seeking out patient care equally experience both psychological distress as well as somatic ones.

This finding challenges the old notion that people in developing countries generally express distress somatically.