Analysis of the Results of a Questionnaire Survey of Doctors and Clinical Psychologists on Somatovegetative Symptoms of Stress

INTRODUCTION. The high prevalence of stress conditions among the Russian population contributes to the development of a large number of psychosomatic disorders associated with them, which cause frequent referral of these functional conditions to somatic medical institutions, along with the difficulty of timely diagnosis, which keeps the search and development of diagnostic algorithms aimed at their verification relevant. The National Medical Research Center for Rehabilitation and Balneology is working on the creation of a questionnaire “Comprehensive assessment of the physiological symptoms of stress”, in which a preliminary survey of specialists was conducted. AIM. Collecting information on somatovegetative symptoms of stress from senior medical staff directly caring for patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS. According to a pre-developed questionnaire, which includes 12 dysfunctional blocks related to various systems and functions of the body, 160 doctors and medical psychologists were interviewed, who were asked to describe patients’ complaints of disorders of various organs, systems and/or functions, having a functional, stress-related character, which they observed in their practice. Descriptive statistics methods were used to process the results. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. The analysis of the survey results allowed us to identify 47 dysfunctional symptoms from various organs and body systems that were not yet present in any of the existing blank forms of scales and questionnaires for stress diagnosis. They formed the basis of the questionnaire being developed, but turned out to be non-specific: they could not only be somatovegetative manifestations of stress conditions, but also be the cause of other diseases. CONCLUSION. The survey made it possible to identify a wide range of psychovegetative symptoms. Due to their non-specificity, when developing a new questionnaire, it is necessary to add additional clarifying characteristics that make it possible to accurately determine their stress-related nature. Modern digital technologies make it possible to create algorithms that include a large amount of clarifying data, and, at the same time, select only the information necessary for a particular case during diagnostics, saving time. It is expected that the creation of a new questionnaire in a modern digital format will make it possible to optimize the diagnosis of psychosomatic pathology.