Somatization in a primary care service for immigrants

Abstract

Approximately one-fourth of socially disadvantaged immigrants who accessed primary care services used somatization to express their distress. However, the likelihood of somatization varied widely among the different groups, and was significantly higher in South Americans and in some African groups, and lower in some Asian groups.

Somatic perception, cultural differences and immigration: results from administration of the Modified Somatic Perception Questionnaire (MSPQ) to a sample of immigrants

“…This finding is different from the result obtained by Aragona et al5 who found a statistically significant difference among different nationality groups, with the somatization score being higher among the South Americans and Africans and lower among the Asian subjects. On the other hand, the classical “somatization hypothesis” mentioned above, for which some cultures are more likely to somatize than others, has been challenged by recent evidence that shows that the complaint of somatic symptoms is not influenced by the cultural background, and is more related to the immigration experience itself rather than to the cultural milieu 58.…”

“…For the immigrant, in some stressful situations and contexts, the body becomes an actual blackboard, on which the conflicts, the pressures, the defenses, and the emotional stress that derive from the encounter with a different culture are written 3. Immigrants particularly use somatization while seeking medical help and accessing primary care services,4 with a prevalence ranging from 21.9%–25.0%5,6 up to 35.2% 7…”

Psychogenic non‐epileptic seizures among patients with functional neurological disorder: A case series from a Tanzanian referral hospital and literature review

“…High rates of somatization or psychogenic complaints have been reported in a handful of studies of certain subpopulations in SSA, often occurring in association with traumatic events such as war, displacement, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, and gender‐based violence . Moreover, several studies of African immigrant populations conducted in North America, Europe, and Australia, report that FNDs are as common in the African immigrant population as in other subgroups. A 1996 World Health Organization (WHO) collaborative study among 15 primary care centers in 14 countries, including a center in Nigeria, used reliable instruments to study the phenomenon and epidemiology of somatization in different cultures in a uniform way; they found that frequency of unexplained somatic symptoms did not clearly vary according to geography or level of economic development.…”

Hispano-Americans in Europe: what do we know about their health status and determinants? A scoping review

“…The presence of vulnerability factors in the HA population living in Europe is well described in the literature and includes exposure to traumatic experiences of violence at the countries of origin [ 121 ] as well as post-migration stressors including adaptation to a new context [ 122 - 125 ], cultural barriers [ 126 ], economic difficulties [ 121 ], inability to meet pre-migration expectations [ 127 ], occupational worries [ 128 ], poor sense of control [ 121 ], break-up of social and family ties, feelings of loss, novelty and nostalgia, undocumented residence status [ 122 ], and lack of a consolidated community [ 129 ]. In Italy, higher rates of “somatisation” were described amongst HAs [ 130 , 131 ]. However, evidence on the actual prevalence of psychological disorders in this population is inconclusive with studies reporting higher [ 129 , 132 , 133 ], similar [ 134 ], and lower rates [ 135 ] vs local populations.…”