Fw: Somatoform Disorder

[Guest guest]

Just received the following response from Tony Weetman.

Luv - sheila

Somatoform Disorder

Dear Professor Weetman,

I have not previously asked the following question, but I would be grateful for a response from you.

You stated in your article published in ‘Medscape’ and ‘Journal of Clinical Endocrinology’ “Whose Thyroid Hormone is it Anyway?” – and I quote:

"The majority of patients who demand thyroid hormone treatment for multiple symptoms, despite normal thyroid function tests, have functional somatoform disorders..."

The hypothyroid patient community finds your statement irresponsible, inaccurate and insulting.

As a mark of real concern for hypothyroid sufferers, would you please publish a follow-up article in the same journals giving your reasons for coming to this conclusion, and, at the same time, providing evidence and appropriate references? I feel you have a responsibility to sufferers of thyroid disease, as well as workers in related medical fields, to provide a reliable and irrefutable explanation for your opinion.

I noted on Shomon’s About.com/Thyroid Forum http://thyroid.about.com/od/newscontroversies/a/weetman_4.htm that you responded to her articles as follows:

Sorry but you have missed at least one crucial point - somatoform disorders are neither hypochondriacal nor psychiatric - I make the point that future research will show that there is basis for these that currently eludes us.

Will you give evidence and appropriate references regarding your “one crucial point” suggesting “somatoform disorders are neither hypochondriacal nor psychiatric”. Would you also please explain how you conclude that “future research” will be done to show such a basis, as well as giving me your interpretation of somatoform disorder?

Kind regards

Sheila

www.tpa-uk.org.uk

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