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abstract number CG16P-0911 Somatic Symptoms in Mood and Anxiety Disorders Cecilia Mainardi1, Biagio Cotugno1, Simone Belli1, Bruno Pacciardi1, Mauro Mauri1 ¹Department of Psychiatry, Neurobiology, Pharmacology and Biotechnologies, University of Pisa, Italy Il Poeta e il pittore. G De Chirico, 1975 Background: Somatization is a widespread human phenomenon. Its phenomenology ranges from physiological response to stress to invalidating psychopathology. Somatic symptoms are not always pathological except when they achieves high levels of intensity, frequency and functional impairment. Epidemiological literature about somatization disorder diagnosis is sparse and inconclusive, but the majority of the data agree about the high prevalence of comorbidity (especially with anxiety and depressive disorders) in patients with somatization disorder, that interfere with diagnostic process. Clinicians may be misleaded by depressive and anxious psychopathology, underestimating the role of somatization disorders. In order to give a contribution to a better understanding of the relationship among anxiety, depressive and somatoform disorders we assessed psychopathological comorbidity with structured clinical interviews in a sample of patients. Methods • Naturalistic observational study on outpatients of a general practitioner and the outpatient of a psychiatric unit at the university of Pisa (sample of 70 outpatients-preliminary data). • This study aimed to investigate prevalence, severity and comorbidity of somatization disorders and anxietydepressive disorders with specific scales (Patient Health Questionnaire,Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety, Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, Clinical Global Impression). • Patients over 65 years old were excluded from the survey, for increased likelihood of medical comorbidities. • Patients with history of alcohol or illicit drugs addiction/abuse were also excluded. • Patients with current or life-time history of psychotic symptoms were excluded. • A Pearson correlation between Hamilton scale scores and somatization items scores was performed. Results and discussion: In most cases somatization disorders were detected among patients with both anxiety and depressive disorders, no somatization disorders were diagnosed in those who had a depressive disorder without anxious comorbidity. Among subjects who had an anxiety disorder without depressive comorbidity an intermedium number of somatization diagnoses was found. Among subjects with no anxiety and no depressive disorders three people resulted to have a somatization disorder. The highest average scores on HAM-A and HAM-D were found in patients with anxious-depressive comorbidity and somatization disorder. In our sample somatization disorders were more prevalent in females than in males (30.95% vs 10.71%). This finding was also supported by PHQ somatization items, being higher in females than in males. Numberof Soma,za,on AveragePHQ Average Conclusions:These preliminary findings are in line Average pa,ents disorder scores HAM-A HAM-D with literature data suggesting a close correlation diagnosis scores scores among somatization and anxious-depressive 35 Group1 12 8.11 20.43 17.09 disorders. Patients with depressive and anxiety symptoms do Group2 35 4 5.71 11.29 8.51 have a high chance of being affected by a comorbid 28 3 5.43 14.11 11.57 somatization disorder. At the same time patients Males 42 13 7.90 17.02 13.62 complaining about somatic symptoms have a high Females chance of being diagnosed with depressive and anxiety disorders. In both cases anxious more than pure depressive symptomathology seem to have a role in patients with somatoform disorders. Patients with multiple comorbidities had more severe psychiatric symptomatology; this may suggest an interconnection among psychopathological dimensions or may just imply that patients with more comorbidities also have a more severe burden of disease. As for clinical practice this would suggest that patients complaining about somatic symptoms should be assessed with the utmost care. In these patients the administration of rating scales aimed at investigating psychiatric comorbidity seems to be mandatory and specialistic consultation should be offered. The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. References [1] Creed, F., & Barsky, A. (2004). A systematic review of the epidemiology of somatisation disorder and hypochondriasis. J Psychosom Res, 56(4), 391-408. doi: 10.1016/S0022-3999(03)00622-6. [2] Van der Boom KJ,Houtveen JH. (2014) Psychiatric comorbidity in patients in tertiary care suffering from severe somatoform disorders. Tijdschr Psychiatr, 56(11):743-7. [3] Hanel G, Henningsen P, Herzog W, Sauer N, Schaefert R, Szecsenyi J & Löwe B. (2009) Depression, anxiety, and somatoform disorders: vague or distinct categories in primary care? Results from a large cross-sectional study. J Psychosom Res. 67(3):189-97. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2009.04.013. Epub 2009 Jun 27. [4] Lieb R, Meinlschmidt G & Araya R. (2007) Epidemiology of the association between somatoform disorders and anxiety and depressive disorders: an update. Psychosom Med. 69(9):860-3. [5] Mauri, M., Cargioli, C., Pacciardi, ., Belli, S., & Luchini, F. (2013). Disturbo di somatizzazione e Disturbo da Conversione: differenze psicopatologiche, cliniche e terapeutiche. L'altro, 16(3), 13-19.