Assessment and psychotherapeutic options of patients with somatoform disorders and a claim for invalidity pensioning

Abstract

Difficulties in the assessment of patients with somatoform disorders and a claim for social security benefits or invalidity pensioning pose a considerable challenge to the medical community. Within the process of delivering a medical expert's opinion, psychiatric and psychological factors often are underestimated. There are ample recommendations to apply specific criteria within the medical expert's report, but there are no empirical studies confirming that these criteria are really used and prognostically valuable. Especially, despite the growing numbers of psychosomatic in-patients and the thereby heightened socioeconomic importance, there are nearly no catamnestic studies which sufficiently evaluate the results of psychotherapy in the specific group of patients with somatoform disorders and a pending desire for financial compensation alone. The rare available data provides a nearly disastrous impression of psychotherapy results in this patient group. This review article highlights important problems of this special patient group and provides some suggestions concerning the further handling of the addressed issues.