Introduction

Somatoform disorders (SD) are known to challenge healthcare professionals and systems, as those common conditions reducing quality of life often lead to excessive referrals and investigations before adequate diagnosis and management. Although studies have proved multiple interventions to be effective and cost-effective in various clinical settings, little is known about the accurate healthcare utilization associated with SD. Two major limitations are SD detection and correct SD labelling, which are challenged by heterogenous clinical presentations and disputed cross-disciplinary classifications. Additionally, usual healthcare data do not systematically identify the triggering events leading to healthcare services use, nor the expectations and perceived help, even though healthcare is known to be a core theme of patient experience of SD. The aim of this study is to trace back the pathway of care that individuals follow before they eventually undergo a specialised multidisciplinary assessment.



Methods

This monocentric descriptive study relies on data retrospectively collected from participants and their parents during face-to-face interviews assisted by a biographical grid. Inclusion criteria are to be aged 12 to 25 years old and to be diagnosed with SD by a specialised multidisciplinary team. Variables measured to describe the healthcare pathway are chosen according to professional experience and literature review. They are collected alongside concomitant life events both to reduce memory bias and to explore determinants and effects of healthcare consumption as a secondary outcome.



Results & Discussion

We will present the data describing the pathway of care of all patients enrolled so far and underline the emerging patterns and variations among the population. We intend to question our findings and discuss the method chosen to map the healthcare pathway. Perspectives of larger studies allowing more data analysis will also be discussed.