الفهرس 
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Abstract
Aim of the work
1- To study the prevalence of somatoform disorders among patients presenting to neurology and psychiatry outpatients clinic, Minia University hospital.
2- Typifying the symptoms profile of these patients and their correlation with demographic variables.
3- To establish the reliability and validity of SDSC (the somatoform disorders symptoms checklist). A semi structured diagnostic instrument developed by the WHO for clinician’s assessment of somatoform disorders.
4- Elaborating peculiarities of the culture in their reflection on symptom pattern and phraseology describing these symptoms.
Conclusion
In our study the estimated prevalence of somatoform disorders was 14.8% (92 cases). The most frequent disorder was the undifferentiated somatoform disorder 76% (70 cases), followed by the persistent somatoform pain disorder 9.8% (9 cases), somatization disorder 8.7% (8 cases) and hypochondrial disorder 5.4% (5 cases).
We also found that, married, illiterate females with household activities were more representative than males in the total number of somatoform disorder cases and in most of its subgroups except in the hypochondrial disorder as males were more representative, but this needs more wider study as the number of hypochondrial case were small.
Fatigue symptoms, headache and bony aches and pains were the most frequent symptoms and the most suggestive for somatoform disorders.
We find no role gender in the symptom profile of the patients. Residence also had not a significant role in symptoms profile. However, education affecting symptoms profiles as headache was more frequent in educated patients.
As regard pattern of symptoms in different somatoform disorders, we found no significant differences between somatization disorder and undifferentiated somatoform disorder in symptom profile but they differ mainly in the duration of illness and in the severity of the symptoms. However, hypochondrial patients were more representative with cardiovascular symptoms and respiratory symptoms which are under the control of the autonomic nervous system.