This study compared gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms and psychiatric morbidity in consecutive new out-patients presenting to a district general hospital. In a 6-month period 36 patients of South Asian origin were referred to the clinic. They were compared in terms of GI symptoms and psychiatric morbidity with white European controls, both with a large sample of clinic attenders, and with a subsample of 36 matched for age, gender, and diagnosis. A total of 72% (26 of 36) of Asian patients had functional GI disorders compared to 48% (42 of 88) of white patients (p < 0.05). However, comparisons of matched patients showed that Asian patients with functional GI disorders had less severe GI symptoms than the matched white patients, and fewer had psychiatric disorder (23% of Asians and 42% of white Europeans). These results suggest that the threshold for referral for Asian patients with functional GI disorders to hospital clinics is lower than for white patients. Detection and management of somatization in Asian patients in primary care need to be improved, and referral patterns of general practitioners need to be explored in future research.