A transition of a functional disease to an organic psychosomatic disorder

Twenty patients with ulcer (83 female and 117 male) have been studied. It was found out that many patients had functional disorders of the gastrointestinal tract in the form of gastralgia or neurogenic vomiting ("organic neurosis of stomach") long before the disease manifestation. At that time the patients underwent gastroscopy and X-ray examination of the stomach and the duodenum but no pathological organic changes were revealed. The study showed that 13% of men and 28% of women with "organic neurosis of the stomach" had signs of ulcer disease 12-13 years later. Therefore, a transition of functional to organic within unified psychosomatic process is in principle possible.