The Number of Pain Sites and Other Non-pain Symptoms are Important Clues for Diagnosis: A Cross-sectional Study of Outpatients with Multiple Somatic Complaints

Abstract

Background: In general practice, a wide variety of patients often present with various complaints. Some of them have multiple somatic symptoms, and it is possible for a general practitioner to miss an organic disease. In this cross-sectional study, we retrospectively examined the correlation between the number of complaints and the prevalence of diseases in order to elucidate clues to help detect organic diseases in patients with multiple somatic complaints.
Method: We evaluated 386 new walk-in outpatients who presented to the department of general medicine at the Toyama University Hospital between January 2014 and December 2014 with pain symptoms. Symptoms were classified by the number of pain sites (NPS) and the number of other non-pain complaints (NOC). Then we examined the association between these two variables and the final diagnosis.
Results: The prevalence of organic diseases in the four and more NPS group was significantly higher than that of the three or less NPS group (66.7% and 27.5%, respectively). Psychiatric diseases were more prevalent in the group who had three and more NOC than in the patient population with two or less NOC (36.4% and 4.4%, respectively).
Conclusion: Counting NPS and NOC could contribute to proper management of patients with multiple somatic complaints.