“Functional somatic syndromes, one or many?”: An answer by cluster analysis

• Published in: Journal of psychosomatic research Vol. 74; no. 1; pp. 6 - 11
• Main Authors: Lacourt, Tamara, Houtveen, Jan, van Doornen, Lorenz
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Inc 01.01.2013
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Age Factors; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Anxiety Disorders - classification; Anxiety Disorders - diagnosis; Anxiety Disorders - psychology; Body Mass Index; Cluster Analysis; Cognition Disorders - classification; Cognition Disorders - diagnosis; Cognition Disorders - psychology; Comorbidity; Depressive Disorder - classification; Depressive Disorder - diagnosis; Depressive Disorder - psychology; Fatigue - classification; Fatigue - diagnosis; Fatigue - psychology; Female; Functional somatic symptoms; Humans; Illness Behavior; Male; Medically unexplained symptoms; Middle Aged; Psychiatry; Psychological distress; Somatoform Disorders - classification; Somatoform Disorders - diagnosis; Somatoform Disorders - psychology; Syndrome; Young Adult; Cluster analysis; Psychological distress; Functional somatic symptoms; Medically unexplained symptoms

The aim of the present study was to address the lumper-splitter discussion on functional somatic syndromes by applying k-means cluster analyses on a heterogeneous sample of persons with unexplained somatic complaints. In favor of the lumper-side of the debate, clusters should differ only on the over...