Clinical Impact of Systematic Assessment and Psychoeducation in Specialized Treatment of Adolescents with Severe Functional Somatic Disorders: Results from the AHEAD Study

Functional somatic disorders (FSD), characterized by persistent and disabling physical symptoms, are common in adolescents. Diagnostic uncertainty insufficient illness explanations proposed perpetuating factors that may constitute barriers for treatment engagement. This study describes the impact of manualized assessment psychoeducation on diagnostic certainty various clinical outcomes adolescents with multi-system FSD. Ninety-one (15–19 years) received systematic (4 h) a subsequent psychiatric consultation (1.5 h). Clinical characteristics included self-reported health, symptom severity, perception, illness-related behavior, psychological flexibility assessed before approximately two months after assessment, prior to specialized treatment. Data were analyzed using t-tests. Immediately following 71 (80.7%) out 88 reported higher 74 (84.1%) attending gave them positive expectations future A clinically relevant improvement health was not observed at but considerable reductions seen worry, negative perceptions, limiting inflexibility. The results emphasize important their own right severe