The prevalence of painful symptoms in depressed patients is around 65% while for somatoform disorder, it varies from 2-40% due to different study designs used across the population. Due to overlap in the diagnosis, a hypothesis has been laid that depressive disorder and somatoform disorder might be sharing a common pathway for symptom development. This study was conducted to compare the somatic symptoms between depressive disorder and somatoform disorder. 60 cases each of depressive disorder and somatoform disorder were enrolled in this study. The sample was selected on the basis of inclusion and exclusion criteria and alternate sampling method was used. HAM-D and 4DSQ scales were applied on all the cases. The qualitative data were depicted in terms of percentages and the quantitative data were expressed in terms of Mean + SD. The statistics were done using IBM SPSS 20V. Somatoform disorder patients showed a significantly higher stress levels than patients of depressive disorder. Also, 11 items namely dizziness or feeling light headed, fainting, back pain, excessive sweating, palpitations, a bloated feeling in the abdomen, blurred vision or spots in front of your eyes, shortness of breath, nausea or an upset stomach, pain in the abdomen or stomach area and pain in the chest showed a significant trend towards somatoform disorder when compared to depressive disorder group. Future studies should investigate the various etiological factors that are predictive of symptom dimensions in depressive disorder and somatoform disorder patients.

Keywords : Depressive Disorder, Somatoform Disorder, 4DSQ, Pain, Somatic Symptoms, Physical Complains