Somatisation in primary care

doi:10.1136/bmj.324.7336.544

BMJ 2002;324:544 ( 2 March )

Letters

Somatisation in primary care

Solitary disclosure allows people to determine their own dose

Descriptive use of term should not be confused with its conceptualisation

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Solitary disclosure allows people to determine their own dose

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ On the surface, Schilte et al in their study suggest that disclosure of emotional events has no effect on markers ofphysical health or health related behaviours $---$ a finding at oddswith studies published over the past few years.^1-3 A criticaldifference between the study by Schilte et al and most other disclosurestudies is that Schilte et al required participants to talk abouta traumatic experience to another person. Most successful disclosurestudies, on the other hand, have had participants write anonymouslyabout a trauma for several days in a laboratory, in a neutralsetting, or athome.

The study may help show when disclosure can be helpful versus harmful. It may also address recent controversies surroundingcritical incident stress debriefing, where people who have experiencedrecent trauma are pressed to talk about their emotions to peoplein the context of a group. An increasing number of . . . [Full text of this article]

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