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BioPsychoSocial Medicine
Published in: BioPsychoSocial Medicine 1/2007

Open Access 01-12-2007 | Review

Age and gender differences of psychogenic fever: a review of the Japanese literature

Authors: Takakazu Oka, Kae Oka

Published in: BioPsychoSocial Medicine | Issue 1/2007

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Abstract

Background

Psychogenic fever is one of the most common psychosomatic diseases. Patients with psychogenic fever have acute or persistent body temperature above normal range in psychologically stressful situations. In spite of numerous case reports on psychogenic fever, there are few epidemiological studies. Therefore, our goal was to investigate the age distribution and gender differences of psychogenic fever in Japan.

Methods

To achieve this goal, we searched Medline and Ichushi WEB, a Japanese medical database, and added other publications that were not included in these databases. Thus, we reviewed 195 Japanese cases of psychogenic fever published in 62 papers.

Results

Psychogenic fever patients ranged from 3 to 56 years old, with the highest number of cases occurring in 13 year-olds in both sexes. The male: female ratio of 1: 1.19 suggested a slight predominance of female cases. Psychogenic fever accounted for 18% of fever cases of unknown origin in children and 2–6% of the psychosomatic diseases of pediatric patients. Patients with psychogenic fever were not only found in pediatrics departments, but also in psychosomatic medicine, psychiatry, internal medicine, anesthesiology, dentistry, and obstetrics/gynecology departments.

Conclusion

The age of psychogenic fever patients ranged from 3 to 56 years old and the male: female ratio was 1:1.19. Psychogenic fever is seen especially in adolescence in Japan.
Appendix
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Metadata
Title
Age and gender differences of psychogenic fever: a review of the Japanese literature
Authors
Takakazu Oka
Kae Oka
Publication date
01-12-2007
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BioPsychoSocial Medicine / Issue 1/2007
Electronic ISSN: 1751-0759
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1751-0759-1-11

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