Abstract
This study is aimed to clarify the relationship between somatic symptoms and mental symptoms in patients with major depressive disorder, to assess the somatic symptoms during recovery process, and to establish the criteria of somatic symptoms for discharge support plan. In this study, we examined the somatic symptoms as sleep disturbance, loss of appetite, weight loss, constipation, feeling of fatigue, pain (headache, back ache, joint ache and so on), dizziness and tinnitus, feeling of breathing difficulty, nausea and vomiting, and thirst. The Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) and the Clinical Global Impression (CGI) by psychiatrist, and the Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS) were measured as the mental symptoms. And we compared the nursing assessment by the criteria of the somatic symptoms with the discharge permission judged by psychiatrist. Subjects were 10 inpatients of major depressive disorders (6 male and 4 female, mean age was 41.7; range 25-74 years old). The somatic symptoms were significantly correlated with the mental symptoms (p<0.05). After evaluating the criterion of somatic symptoms, the somatic symptoms and the mental symptoms did not change significantly during the period to discharge. The nursing assessment by the criteria of somatic symptoms is significantly earlier than the discharge permission judged by psychiatrist (p<0.05). These results suggest that the criteria of somatic symptoms are helpful for objective evaluation of patients with major depressive disorder during recovery process. And the nursing assessment by the criteria of somatic symptoms is helpful in planning discharge support. Thus, the criteria of somatic symptoms may be useful for making clinical path for discharge support plan.
