Clinical management of functional disorders; the diagnostic interview.

The understanding and sympathetic physician realizes that almost every patient who consults him is worried and anxious. Sometimes the cause of the patient's anxiety is obvious; often it is not. A patient with a fracture or one who has noticed gross blood in the stool is understandably disturbed. His anxiety often results in symptoms which are in addition to those of the underlying pathological process. Such anxieties, however, present little difficulty to the clinician. The symptoms are recognized for what they are and respond rapidly to reassurance, mild sedation, and effective treatment of the obvious disease or injury. On the other hand, many patients come with anxiety of more obscure cause. It may manifest itself as fatigue, nervousness, tenseness, headache, insomnia, indigestion, or a host of other symptoms. It is with this group that this paper is particularly concerned. Such patients are frequently seen by physicians engaged in the practice