More than one "medically unexplained symptom" not fitting within a specific medical diagnosis, may be identifiers of a person with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
A University of Otago study has found a pattern of symptoms in war veterans, and they should be taken seriously by health professionals, researchers say.
Study leader and occupational and environmental medicine researcher Prof David McBride said the research looked into the relationship between exposure to traumatic events and multiple symptom illness (MSI).
He said the symptoms fell into three groups — arthro-neuro-muscular (joint/nerve/muscle pains); cognitive (sleeping problems, repetitive bad dreams, loss of concentration); and psycho/physiological (sore throat/nausea/glands).
MSI was first described in veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War and occurred in both military personnel and civilians.
He said most war veterans were "stoic" and would often avoid seeing a doctor, let alone tell a doctor about any of these symptoms.
"The aim of this study was to describe the pattern of reporting of MSI among New Zealand veterans and investigate the relationship with PTSD as a risk factor.
"Health practitioners might find that a patient presenting with multiple symptoms, including muscle and joint aches and pains, cognitive problems, disorders or sleep and avoidance, is worthy of further investigation, including whether or not they have military service and inquire about PTSD symptoms."
Of the 1672 New Zealand veterans who participated in the study, 59% had served in a war zone and 29% had some signs of PTSD.
Prof McBride said on average, those with signs of PTSD also reported 20 symptoms, while those without PTSD reported having nine symptoms.
The number of symptoms also tended to increase with age.
"In summary, multiple symptom illness, rather than being an inexplicable pattern of health effects, remains stable across time and is linked to both chronic illness and poorer quality of life.
"Because of the pattern of symptom reporting and the veteran group reporting it, there is a plausible association between MSI and PTSD.
"This research tends to confirm that PTSD is associated with MSI, as did the finding that those veterans with PTSD had more severe symptoms."
He said if such a pattern of symptoms was found in a veteran, it should be further investigated.
"In Australian veterans, those with MSI developed more health conditions over time, the symptoms became more severe, and they had higher health service use, suggesting that it is important to catch these conditions early, and treat the underlying condition."
