Interstitial cystitis: women at risk for psychiatric misdiagnosis.

Interstitial cystitis (IC) is a form of painful bladder disease, characterized by chronic urinary urgency, frequency, and pain without evidence of bacterial infection. Ninety percent of patients with IC are women. Somatization disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis, given most often to women who report a variety of symptoms, such as dysmenorrhea, burning in sex organs, dyspareunia, irregular menstrual periods, and painful urination. Because diagnosis of interstitial cystitis may take many years, health care providers must be alert to the risks of the overdiagnosis of psychiatric problems and the underdiagnosis of interstitial cystitis.