Background: The self and self-experience are often assumed to play an important role in adolescent patients presenting with severe somatic symptoms and bodily distress. Nonetheless, most empirical work on this subject is confined to studies of personality and patients' experience of negative emotionality. This study aims to move beyond mere descriptions of symptoms, traits and distress, and consequently adopts a narrative approach to self-experience in adolescent chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Sampling and Methods: The self-confrontation method (SCM) is a well-validated instrument to systematically analyze narrative self-experience. The SCM was used to study 42 adolescents with CFS, compared to 36 adolescents with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and 25 matched healthy controls. The Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ-CF87) was used to assess mental health, self-esteem, and physical and psychosocial functioning. Results: Both patient groups reported significantly less positive self-experience of autonomy and success compared to healthy controls. Furthermore, patients with CFS described significantly more negative self-experience of powerlessness, isolation and unfulfilled longing. In the CHQ-CF87, both patient groups scored significantly lower on physical functioning than controls. Adolescents with CFS also scored significantly lower on mental health and self-esteem. Conclusions: Adolescent CFS entails a serious threat to the self, which might be inherent to the condition. Not only are patients more impaired in mental health, self-esteem, and physical and psychosocial functioning than patients with JIA, they also suffer from a distinct combination of high negative and low positive self-experience. These findings stress the need for strategies that empower patients towards a 'management of the self'. (C) 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel

Objective: Worldwide there are frequent reports on increasing psychosomatic problems, anxiety, emotional distress, conduct problems, and depression among adolescents. Recently, it was contended that secular studies on such aspects of adolescent mental health can only be evaluated adequately when data on symptom prevalence are analyzed together with data on functional impairment Still, this has not yet been done in epidemiological time-trend studies on any aspect of adolescent mental health. Therefore, this study aims to investigate if, and to what extent, changes in adolescents' symptoms of psychosomatic problems are affected when data on functional impairment are taken into account simultaneously. Methods: A repeated cross-sectional population study relating self-reported symptoms of psychosomatic problems to functional impairment; covering the time-period 1988-2011 and including 19.823 adolescents 15-16 years old in eight cohorts in one geographically defined population (Varmland, Sweden). Results: The proportion of adolescents with psychosomatic problems had increased significantly from 1988 to 2005/2008. In all cohorts the proportion of girls with psychosomatic problems was significantly higher than the proportion of boys reporting symptoms. Over the same period, there was a corresponding significant increase of the proportion of participants with symptoms of psychosomatic problems in combination with functional impairment Adding functional impairment to the measure of psychosomatic problems decreased the prevalence rates, while the shapes of the trend-curves stayed congruent in form. Conclusion: The long-term pattern of increasing psychosomatic problems among adolescents remains evident, even when taking functional impairment data into account. Previously observed trends of a deteriorating adolescent mental health are thus consistent with this study. 

Objective: DSM-5 somatic symptom disorder (SSD) constitutes a major change for psychosomaticmedicine and psychiatry, as well as for epidemiological research in these fields. This studyinvestigates somatic symptoms and psychological concerns among adolescents in order tosystematically explore the relevance of SSD for general adolescent populations.

Methods: A crosssectionalpopulation-based design, with a symptoms-based strategy and a symptom-andpsychological-concerns-based strategy, was used to estimate the prevalence of somatic symptomsand psychological concerns in a general adolescent population (n=2476, mean age=16 years, 49%boys, 51% girls). Somatic symptoms and psychological concerns in relation to gender, and selfreportedmedical and psychiatric conditions were investigated. The association between somaticsymptoms, psychological concerns, and functional impairment in school-, family-, peer- and physicalactivities was studied.

Results: Reporting 3+ persistent distressing somatic symptoms wassignificantly more common than reporting one or more persistent distressing somatic symptom(s)combined with serious psychological concern. The prevalence of such complaints was significantlyhigher in girls. The proportion of medical and psychiatric conditions was highest in the groupreporting 3+ persistent distressing somatic symptoms combined with serious psychological concern.Belonging to this group most significantly increased odds ratios for functional impairment.

Conclusion: For large-scale studies on SSD, results suggest the use of measures based on multiplesomatic items in combination with psychological concerns, and a methodologically soundstandardized measure of functional impairment. To further enhance clinical decision-making, therelation of symptoms to functional impairment, and the substantial overlap of SSD with medical andpsychiatric conditions during adolescence should be addressed.