Treating Somatization:A Multimodal Approach

Somatization disorder is a major public health issue for which effective treatment is rarely delivered. Several models of psychotherapy are being practiced in treatment of somatization disorder. The study aimed to assess the efficacy of multimodal psychotherapy package for management of somatization patients on different psychological variables and to see the durability of the therapeutic gains. This study was a center based study using the pre - post design with control group. 30 OPD patients with somatization disorder were selected by purposive sampling technique and divided into two groups' i.e. intervention group and control group using simple random sampling method. Intervention group was given twelve sessions of management package i.e. Symptoms monitoring form, Scheduling of daily activity, Sleep hygiene, Diaphragmatic breathing, Psycho-social Intervention, Psychodynamic individual psychotherapy, Cognitive restructuring (approximately 3 to 4 months). Efficacy and durability were measured by The Bradford Somatic Inventory (BSI), General health Questionnaire-28 GHQ-28), Defense Mechanism Inventory (DMI) and Sack's Sentence Completion Test (SSCT). For baseline analysis of the study variables Mann Whitney U test and Chi square test were done. Wilcoxon Sign Rank test and Mann Whitney U test were done to assess the changes at different time intervals. Results reveals that there is significant differences found among intervention group in comparisons to control group in context of somatic complaints (Bradford Somatic Inventory), quality of life (WHO-Quality of life scale), level of depression (Beck Depression Inventory), and in level of anxiety (IPAT Anxiety Scale). Significant improvement also found between post intervention & follow-up of the intervention group on different study variables. The present study findings established that multimodal psychotherapy program is effective in the improvement of psychological functioning and improvement is also sustained, maintained and improving till follow up sessions.