Emotional Symptoms and Health Complaints for Patients Seeking Psychomotor Physiotherapy

Aim: Because patients seeking Norwegian psychomotor physiotherapy (PMF) rarely have been described with validated, psychometrically sound instruments, we used six questionnaires to characterize these patients in terms of subjective health complaints and emotional symptoms. Design: quantitative, cross-sectional, and comparative study. Material: Physiotherapists specialised in PMF recruited patients from different parts of Norway (n = 60). Non-help-seeking persons (n = 66) with similar gender and age distribution were recruited to a comparison group. The groups were compared with each other and population norms regarding subjective health complaints (Subjective Health Complaints), depression (Beck Depression Inventory-II), anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory -Trait), fatigue (Fatigue Questionnaire), insomnia (Bergen Insomnia Scale), and quality of life (Quality of Life Inventory). Results: Most patients seeking PMF were women (82 %), with a mean age of 44 years (range 22-75). They had long-lasting (mean >9 years), primarily musculoskeletal complaints. Compared to non-help-seeking persons and population norms, persons seeking PMF had more severe impairment on all variables, and reported four times more depressive symptoms and subjective health complaints than non-help-seekers. The most widespread clinically significant problems were sleep disturbances (85 %), followed by anxiety (69 %), low quality of life (63 %), depressive symptoms (59 %), and fatigue (57 %). Emotional symptoms correlated strongly with subjective health complaints and quality of life. Conclusion: Patients seeking PMF had long-lasting and comprehensive problems.