DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2015.v03i03.094

Pages: 1497-1504

A tendency to seek treatment for medically unexplained physical complaints is frequently associated with depression; this tendency to experience and communicate psychological distress in the form of physical symptoms has been termed as “somatisation”. The aim was to study correlation between depression (MADRS) and somtisation (BSI) scores, socio-demographic factors influencing depression and somatization scores in various subgroups of depression. This is a cross sectional study conducted in outpatient department at government general hospital. Subjects were categorized in to three subgroups of depression as per ICD-10. All the subjects were administrated MADRS and BSI scales to study severity of depression and nature of somatization. The results obtained were analyzed statistically. In this study, from the correlation coefficient it is observed that BSI and MADRS are negatively correlated in each group. Somatic symptoms were larger with major depression and level of depression influences somatisation. Similarly sociodemographic factors like age, female sex, education, marital status and place of living will influence somatisation.BSI and MADRS are related to each other and it is possible to predict one from the other. Large scale community based studies are required in Indian context to establish the nature of somatization in depression.