Researchers at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey said they have found success using cognitive behavioral therapy to treat somatization.

Lesley Allen, an associate professor of psychiatry, and her team said their treatment for somatization, a disorder that causes patients to experience numerous painful and disabling symptoms that doctors are unable to explain, greatly reduces the number and severity of symptoms, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

The team studied 84 patients diagnosed with the disorder for 15 months. Half of the patients, all of whom were between the ages of 18 and 70, were selected randomly to be subjected to 10 weekly sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy.

After the end of the 15-month period, 40 percent of the group that received CBT was found to be very much improved or much improved on a widely accepted rating scale and 5 percent of the control group was given the same rating.

Allen said somatization disorder affects between 0.2 and 2 percent of U.S. citizens.